Welfare for the Wealthy: US Taxpayers Might be Asked to Prop up the Chicago Cubs

[Captain Hilts]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR2009092103682.html

The Chicago Cubs aren't going to win anything this year despite having one of baseball's largest payrolls. But their bankrupt owner, Sam Zell's Tribune Co., may be about to hit a home run -- at your expense.

Zell, whose tax dodging is a frequent topic of mine, is trying to unload the team in a deal that would divert almost $300 million from taxpayers to the creditors of Tribune, the nation's second-biggest newspaper company.

The proposed Cubs deal, involving a "leveraged partnership" using lots of borrowed money, is so aggressive that a leading tax expert, Robert Willens expects the IRS to challenge it. "The IRS has expressed hostility to this sort of transaction," he said.

...

Now Zell is trying to get around the problem he created when he converted Tribune from a standard C corporation to an S corporation to avoid taxes. Firms making that switch owe corporate gains taxes if within 10 years of the change they sell assets, such as the Cubs, in which they had "built-in gains."

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. screw that SOB to a wall with poison-tipped titanium bolts

then, chain him to a concrete block, throw him in a lead lined box, and use him as bait for trolling the bottom of Lake Michigan.

As the skipper suggested, a three hour tour.

[MajorChode]

2. Sam Zell leaves his mark on the Los Angeles Times