Big banks take millions from tax credit designed to help poor, report says

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Wait a minute. Am I reading this right? The Washington Times? Senator Tom Coburn?

Big banks take millions from tax credit designed to help poor, report says

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Monday, August 11, 2014

Big banks are claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits the federal government intended to go to poor communities, according to two new reports released Monday that could make it tougher for Congress to renew the tax breaks later this year.

The New Markets Tax Credit, created by a Republican Congress and signed into law by then-President Clinton, was supposed to entice banks to help finance projects in low-income communities. But instead banks have claimed the credit for everything from drive-in movie theaters to luxury hotels, Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican and Congress’s top waste-watcher, said in one report.

Some investors also end up double dipping, combining the NMTC with other tax credits or subsidies and, in at least one case, an investor used the other public money to claim the size of the investment was bigger, thus earning an even bigger tax credit from the government — essentially getting paid a credit to invest taxpayers’ money rather than his own.
....

“This tax credit, intended to benefit the poor, is instead lining the pockets of the well-off, such as big banks and other private investors that claim more than $1 billion in NMTC annually,” the senator wrote. “Because it is funded by taxing the labor of Americans, NMTC is essentially a reverse Robin Hood scheme paid for with the taxes collected from working Americans to provide payouts to big banks and corporations in the hope that those it took the money from might benefit.”

Up is down. Black is white. Truth is falsehood. No other explanation is possible.