Nobody was ever meant
To remember or invent
What he did with every cent. – Robert Frost
People who have never owned a company often fail to understand that any institution formally organized and registered with the government is a separate entity from its owner, even if there is only one owner. I am the sole owner and member of Maggie McNeill, LLC, yet I cannot simply take money from that entity as I please; I can pay myself as much salary or bonuses as I like, but it must be recorded that way, and if I spend the company’s money on myself without proper documentation (say, by buying cat treats or going to a movie) it is considered embezzlement. It can get complicated; when I’m on my book tour this summer, for example, I can buy myself dinner with company funds (as long as I keep the receipts), but I could not do the same tonight because I’m not travelling on company business right now. And though I could give copies of my book purchased with company funds to reviewers or other business contacts, if I wanted to give them to friends as gifts I’d have to buy them from the company because there is no valid promotional reason to give them to friends.
To those who have never owned a company, this probably seems remarkably silly, and it would be if not for the existence of income taxes. But because businesses and individuals are taxed differently, using company funds directly for personal use avoids having to disburse those funds on paper, so it then becomes undeclared income. When the company is small and the amounts meager it’s unlikely the taxman will discover anything amiss, but as the amount of money in question increases the government pays a great deal more attention: remember, while Al Capone got away with many murders and other violent crimes, it was for tax evasion that he was finally imprisoned. And when the entity in question is a nonprofit organization, the rules are even more strict; the owner of a nonprofit is still subject to income tax even if the organization isn’t, so spending nonprofit funds on personal use is considered an even more serious offense.
The reason I’m bringing all this up right now is not merely because I got a short lecture on it from my banker last Friday, but also because of certain information a confidential source provided me just the day before that. Remember Rachel Moran, touted by Irish prohibitionists as a former sex worker despite the fact that she doesn’t know the first thing about the profession and nobody in the area she supposedly worked had ever set eyes on her before? And then there was her confederate Justine Reilly, who was convicted of “pimping” in 2001 but repeatedly “reframed her experiences” until she was magically transformed into the “victim of pimps” herself. Well, with the help of Magdalene laundry front Ruhama, the two of them formed an “independent” liar’s club named “SPACE International” and then set about soliciting (ahem) donations (ahem ahem). Here’s an interesting email exchange with Norma Ramos of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (a major prohibitionist group instrumental in spreading Swedish rot propaganda); I’ve inverted the order from the way it appears on the forwarded email so as to make it easier to read, and I’ve also hidden details like addresses and bank account numbers.
From: Rachel Moran [mailto: rachel.moran8@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2013 11:05 AM
To: Norma Ramos
Cc: justine reilly
Subject: Bank account detailsDear Norma,
After more nonsense with the bank today where I have been advised that Justine and I will need to set an appointment for next week, we have decided that the commonsense thing to do is have our funding transferred into my account, where it will stay only until we have set up our joint account.
I am going to Norway tomorrow for five nights and myself and Justine are going to the UK the following week, and of course you are leaving CATW within weeks, so we feel this is the best way to deal with things for the time being and are hoping this is okay with you.
Mine is a current account, not a savings account (in case you are asked) and my bank details are below:
AIB (Allied Irish Bank) – ***** Branch
Account name: Rachel Moran
Account Number: 6******7
National Sort Code: 9****1My home address is, * S_____ Lane, ********, Dublin **, in case you should need that. If there is anything else you need please let me know.
Thank you for this, and for everything, xx
Rachel
From: Norma Ramos <NRamos@catwinternational.org>
Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2013 4:03 PM
To: Rachel Moran < rachel.moran8@gmail.com>
Cc: justine reilly <justinereilly@ymail.com>, Corey Backes <CBackes@catwinternational.org>, Janet Gumbs <jgumbs@catwinternational.org>
Subject: RE: Bank account detailsDear Rachel,
CATW is thrilled to an award a seed grant in the amount of $5000.00 to SPACE to facilitate the development of this NGO dedicated to working against the commercial sexual exploitation of human beings. Thank you for the leadership you and Justine have shown been working to end this human rights violation. Warmest, Norma
Norma Ramos, Esq.
Executive Director
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Phone: (212) 643-9895
www.catwinternational.orgOn Tue, Nov 12, 2013 at 9:31 PM, Janet Gumbs <JGumbs@catwinternational.org> wrote:
Dear Rachel,
I am confirming that a wire for the amount of USD 5,000, Euro 3,656.31 was processed today. The funds should be in your account within two days. Please confirm receipt of these funds at such time.
Best,
Janet Gumbs
Director of Finance
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)
t. 212.643.9895
http://www.catwinternational.org/From: Rachel Moran [mailto: rachel.moran8@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 6:35 AM
To: Janet Gumbs
Cc: Norma Ramos; Corey Backes; justine reilly
Subject: Re: Bank account detailsDear Norma and Janet,
We are very grateful for the kind donation of USD 5,000 (Euro 3,656.31) which arrived in my account during my recent stay in Norway. We will be spending this money on communications equipment and fees and technological support, and will be retaining all receipts associated.
Our deepest thanks for your kind assistance,
Rachel and Justine
Well, that’s all pretty clear; the $5000 was awarded as a “seed grant” to SPACE to “develop” its work of ending the terrible human rights violation of consensual sex. And SPACE’s directors said the money would be spent on “communications equipment and fees and technological support,” complete with receipts. So nothing to see here, then…except for the part where organizational funds were deposited into a private account, and also that I’ve been hearing rumors that Moran & Reilly are not exactly friends any more. Perhaps the estrangement is due to the fact that while Moran’s star is rising (she was even interviewed by Rupert Everett for his upcoming Channel 4 documentary, Love for Sale), it seems Reilly is being quietly retired as an embarrassment. But if Moran & Reilly are no longer a team, what about those company funds that went into Moran’s personal account? Here’s what my source said about that:
Ms. Moran is currently living it up in the states with the funding from SPACE. All the original founding members left, including Justine Reilly, and none of the original members had access to SPACE funding or any of the internal administration. SPACE International is all Rachel Moran!!!
Obviously, this is merely an allegation, but it seems it would be an easy one for the Irish tax authorities to investigate were they of a mind to do so. While the Irish government seems afraid of crossing the Laundry Orders or looking too closely at anything they’ve polluted with their foulness, governments invariably seem much more likely to sit up and take notice when taxes are involved than when it’s a matter of some trifle like the enslavement of thousands of women.
In this particular case, more fool the idiots who parted with the money.
Anyway I’m starting a campaign to save abused kittens, please send desperately needed to save those poor kittens (think of those poor kittens being abused because you won’t help them).
Send funds to.
WalksWithEyesHolidayFund
123543
Believe it or not https://www.pobal.ie (who distribute a lot of Irish Government Funding) would probably give you that money, as long as you know the right people, and I could probably give you a list of names in animal welfare, or, if not, the department of Agriculture divide any surplus between known animal welfare organisations about this time of year without, apparently, asking any questions at all.
April is the month when Irish NGOs throw money around, because some allocations can be clawed back if they aren’t spent (crazy system).
Of course, Rachel Moran worked in that sector for long enough to know all this, I guess that is where she got the idea of her VERY OWN NGO?
[…] Moran some more. This is so blatant it is unreal: Slush Fund | The Honest Courtesan Still I would rather be able to expose the BIG corruption behind TORL than the personal greed of […]
Maggie, you’re aware that the IRS is to taxpayers what cops are to hookers – correct?
They make the rules as they go. They selectively enforce them. We don’t really live in a “capitalist” country anymore – more like a “crony capitalist” one. The people who own businesses or who file taxes who agree with the current resident of the oval office can get away with murder. Those who don’t agree with him – get audited and fined and the whole tax collection system is gamed so that even a small error is compounded into a monolithic one.
For cryin’ out loud – we have IRS employees – servants of the state – refusing to answer questions from Congress and pleading the “fifth” – they are above the law – because the man in the White House ensures that those who service his ideology and narcissistic needs are protected.
OK, krulac, I have to pull you up short here. IRS stooges pleading the fifth doesn’t mean they are above the law. It means that they get the same civil rights as human beings. I don’t LIKE that they won’t answer the questions, but it isn’t an example of lawlessness. I would rather have bureauweenies pleading the fifth than Congress empowered to force people to testify.
The IRS has ALWAYS been used by whoever held power in DC to pursue their enemies. That’s simply the way that government works. Some administrations have been worse than others, and Jug-Ears at 1600 PA is somewhat worse than usual. But he isn’t new and unique. Hell, he hasn’t the imagination to be new and unique.
I am “defending” him (for certain values of “defend”) because I don’t want to see criticism of him to reach the nights of absurdity that criticism of Bush reached. The idea that Bush in any significant way resembled a certain Austrian Corporal was ridiculous, and made opposition to him laughable.
If you accuse the sitting president of being a mad dictator, and you don’t vanish the next night, you have been refuted.
Don’t have a problem with IRS employees pleading the “fifth” – but if the questions regard their service to the public directly – then she should lose her job and pension in return for that fifth amendment plea. There’s also the “small” detail that she improperly used her fifth amendment rights in a way the rest of us can’t.
From Mitchell v. United States, 526 U.S. 314, 321(1999):
As a military member – I DID NOT have a right to free speech and I did not have fifth amendment rights. I DID have “Article 31” rights – the right to not make a statement – but there’s no way I could have ever made a statement and then refused questioning on it. Incidentally, using “disparaging words” against any officer – including the Commander In Chief – is an offense punishable iaw the UCMJ.
Why do military public servants have their constitutional rights “abbreviated” and civilian public servants do not?
Additionally – she’s not the only one. The IRS itself has stonewalled and refused to cooperate with the investigation and the White House could change all of that. They won’t. In fact, every time they’ve been asked a question about this they’ve blown it off as a non-serious issue (exactly the same as they did with Benghazi, the Fast and Furious scandal, the Black Panther scandal, the ObamaCare website scandal, the Homeland Defense report that labelled returning military service-members from the war on terror as potential “terrorists” themselves. Toyota got RAPED and had millions of dollars extorted from them over an accelerator issue that turned out to be operator-error. And the NTSB KNEW about the GM ignition switch problems years ago and did nothing – except stand by and watch people die … why? Because GM is a great big cash umbilical to labor unions and a crony capitalist serf-company of this President.
If you don’t believe all of the arms of government are working to subdue the enemies of the guy in the Oval Office – you haven’t been paying attention. Please remind me of a single improper use by the IRS during the Bush administration. I’m NOT defending Bush – domestically he was a POS too. However, the abuses that he made a “hobby” of – Obama has turned into a PROFESSION.
And no, I’m not refuted if I’m not “vanquished” the moment I condemn the current regime. “Vanquishing” is saved for those with a dangerous voice – and mine is not. Who listens to me? No one.
That is not the case for Maggie. Though she’s no “Ann Coulter” (yet) … she certainly has an amplified voice that more and more people listen to. She also has enough intelligence and courage to merit being “taken down” by the powers that be before she becomes more influential.
I can’t recall any IRS abuses under Bush … though I suspect that the same godsdamned fools who compared him to that German Chancellor have a list … but I think that a short search will show abuses under Clinton, Carter, Nixon, LBJ, JFK, FDR, and Wilson. And claims for Bush Sr., Reagan, Ford, Truman, Hoover, and Coolidge wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.
(aside “Vanquished”? didn’t I write “Vanished”?. Oh, well, same meaning in context)
My point isn’t that Obamarama-ding-dong ISN’T a corrupt swine. My point is that he is all too typical of politicians throughout history. I think that, historically, the Democrats have made use of the idea that they are, as a Party, different. That whatever their sins, they MEAN WELL. And I am trying to cill this myth dead, dead, dead. They aren’t Crusaders For Good. They aren’t Monstrous Revolutionaries. They are nothing more or less than run-of-the-mill guillotine-bait. Perfectly ordinary, boring, corrupt pillocks. Nothing to attract the interest of the Young, the Smart, or the Oppressed.
This will probably seem like a minor point, and I’m asking this because I’ve seen it countless times in places other than in this blog, so I’m not trying to single any one person out. However, can someone explain the point or benefit of using cutesy pet names like “Obamarama-ding-dong”?
Is it a safety valve of sorts? I have no use for the current President (indeed, I did not vote for him). That said, I often try to imagine the perspective of someone who either actively supports him or is at least trying to make a decision of what to do. I can easily imagine this hypothetical person thinking, “if you can’t even be bothered to say someone’s name properly, why should I listen to your point of view?” Which means one potential ally needlessly alienated.
I felt the same way when the previous President was referred to as “Shrub” or “Bushie” or worse.
That’s always been the case; it’s how they got Al Capone. And I’m sure it’s no different in Ireland.
When you’re dealing with the government – you’re dealing with people with unlimited resources. People who hold a grudge – FOREVER and who will use all the power they have … for as long as it takes … to bring you down.
Once government is in your “six” – the only course of escape is to bend over and submit to the rape. Anything else – and you’ll be marked and dogged relentlessly until they destroy you. I don’t like Edwin Edwards … he’s a corrupt clown … but his legal problems started way back in the early ’80’s. He repeatedly escaped those problems, and made the serious error of BRAGGING about it and ridiculing the Justice Department (so did members of his family). This only guaranteed that DOJ would move him to the top of their “take down” list … and eventually they got him..
Had that idiot made a deal with them, or come out of his first trial and said … “Hey, I’m thankful the jury acquitted me – but I don’t have any hard feelings towards the government prosecutors – they were just doing their jobs” – the man would have never gone to prison for a damn thing he did in the future. But instead … he rubbed it in – publicly. He made a statement in front of the press that the U.S. attorney should “kiss my ass”. He also rode a mule to the courthouse one day from his hotel – and said the mule represented the “speed and intellect” of the federal judicial system.
Well – it took the feds two decades to get him after that – but they didn’t ever stop going after him and eventually put him in jail.
Until a very short time ago, there was a remarkable ‘get out of tax free’ arrangement in Ireland. You as a citizen employed there, sent off a form to the Revenue saying that you wished your income to be taxed in such-and-such a country (which just happened to have a 0% tax rate) and not in Ireland. Hey Presto, ’twas done.
No prizes for guessing who took advantage of this.
Reblogged this on Call Screen 24/7.
Even though the various revenue departments are corrupt as Krulac points out, the systems impossible to navigate, and so on, I always recommend every sex worker current and past to get right with the tax man before making a peep in public.
If Moran is investigated for her NGO, they have the power to investigate her personal earnings back 20 years. My guess is if she was working on the street she probably did not do self-assessment taxes, and definitely didn’t if she never did the work. She’s left herself wide open for a world of pain. She would either have to come clean and say she didn’t work (if she didn’t), or magic up a lot of paper very fast, to get out of it with her fillings.
Ireland is like the UK, if you don’t declare any of your working income and have no records, they are free to imagine you entertained guests for 1000 quid a pop, sixteen hours a day, every day. This very quickly racks up to a £250k+ presumed tax bill, which puts it out of the league of your common or garden investigator and into the hands of the Serious Fraud detection agents. I have dealt with these people even though my accounts were letter-perfect, I guess they underestimated me or hoped for a big-name kill. Bottom line if you have nothing in the system they assume the worst and prosecute accordingly.
They also have powers the police do not have to access your home, your previous residences, and all sorts. You can’t “claim the 5th” in a tax fraud interview, they won’t let you record it, and they get very testy if you bring someone to witness their threatening tactics. They call it “FOP”, Force Of Personality. I had a fraud investigator pounding the table, screaming at me until I cried. In spite of bringing 3 accountants into the meeting with me. They are above the law and behave accordingly.
It really does not matter which “side” an ex sex worker is on, you have to do the paperwork (unless in a country where SWs are specifically barred from declaring earnings). UK, US and Ireland – if they see you in the papers it is only a matter of time before they pounce. Revenue gives no shit who’s “right”.
I’m going to take the wild guess if it’s been handled this sloppily, she probably hasn’t filed the relevant paperwork for where the grants originate either. If I were her I’d be on the phone to a quality accountant, stat.
The Revenue can also go on a “fishing expedition”; they don’t accept your accounts, and request more information. But they don’t tell you what information they want. Sometimes such requests are based on income declared by people in similar positions; sometimes, it’s based on anonymous reports they have received. And sometimes your accountant can’t work out what the Revenue are looking for. And sometimes you are completely innocent; but your expense in proving it won’t be an allowable expense.
Another very strange UK Revenue action; if they decide that you owe so much tax that you can’t pay off in the time they demand, then rather giving you the opportunity to work and pay it off, they can and will make you bankrupt. And in that case, they don’t get the tax.
This is true. However on paper they are not allowed to. They are supposed to proceed only with solid evidence; the reality is, they rarely do.
When we challenged the HMRC on their flimsy reasoning for going after me – a snide comment in the Ephraim Hardcastle gossip column in the Mail – they claimed they had ‘other sources,’ though of course, were under no obligation to reveal who these supposed sources were. We exhausted every request possible to try to figure out who it was (the spiteful ex, for example), which they have categorically denied, repeatedly, in writing. We were left with no option but to conclude they were making it up and it was a fishing expedition after all.
What was incredible was even though they had their own records confirming I had another, full-time job the majority of the time I was escorting, they still tried to pull the ’16 hours a day’ trick! Their fantasies about how many clients SWs see put even the most lathered prohibitionists to shame.
In the end it turned out I had over declared (I based my claims on hours booked, not actual income less agency’s share, and overpaid by a third). They will probably never refund that money, nor the £16k I spent defending the investigation. But the moral high ground? Fucking priceless.
Another reason to get right with the tax man is in trying to get a loan or a mortgage with a bank as they look at income to determine if you qualify or not. The only person you are likely to screw over if you try to hide it is yourself. That doesn’t mean most escorts don’t low ball their income but just don’t be stupid about it.
Exactly. If you have no records at all, it leaves the door open for everyone to assume the worst. The tax man will assume you worked far more than you did, and lenders will assume you didn’t work at all.
Every time I hear some fool assert that a national sales tax would eliminate the IRS, and we wouldn’t have to do all that paperwork, I have to resist the overpowering urge to commit pesticide. The way of government is to make everything more and more complicated.
*sigh*
Maggie, are you SURE you think that it would be good for sex workers to leave the black market?
I’m not trying to raise your ire, but would you be willing to elaborate on that a bit? How would a national sales tax be more complicated than the tax code as it presently exists?
I presume your exemplary fool is not proposing a one-size-fits-all tax rate, therefore the government would be making all sorts of complex calculations such as taxing foodstuffs at one rate and clothing at another?
OK; keeping track of sales tax is a pain in the butt; I’ve done it, both retail and wholesale. That’s on the State level. Put the Feds in the position of deriving most of their money from sales taxes and you will have to track every single penny, obsessively. And every sale on every level will be tracked. Your garage sale. The lemonade stand your kids set up. That’s out of the gate. Then let the various special interests get going (and what are we citizens but special interests with legs), and in will get worse.
When I was working retail, doing a sale tax exempts sale on a modern register practically required the sacrifice of a live chicken.
The IRS would still exist, and they wouldn’t just be tracking your income. They would be tracking (or attempting to track, and getting it wrong, and taking it out on YOU) every single economic transaction in the economy.
*shudder*
“And every sale on every level will be tracked. Your garage sale. The lemonade stand your kids set up.”
Well, it appears I’ve been under a misconception all this time, as I had thought that such an system would be restricted to retail and business, not ten-year old children’s lemonade stands. What has kept states hurting for revenue from implementing such a system long before now besides lack of technology?
So that brings another question. The current system is no good. Apparently a national sales tax is no good. What would be a satisfactory system in your view? No system at all?
I base that guess on the premise that if I recall correctly, I saw you among the commenters in agreement with that “Burn the —-ing system down” article on Popehat from last Christmas.
The problem isn’t which kind of taxation. The problem is the quantity of money the government feels it HAS to collect. With the State’s insatiable appetite for funds, ANY system is going to be a problem.
How do we solve this problem? I have no idea. Nobody seems prepared to cut anything much. Talk about zeroing out even such a peripheral function as support of the Arts, and people get up on their hind legs and scream like they were being fed feet-first into a shredder. I can only assume that if any real effort to cut, say, Social Security, went forward the nation would be treated to an exhibit of widespread hysteria.
Here in Sacramento the sales tax people (state Board of Equalization) do indeed visit swap meets and garage sales. You are allowed two sales per year without a retail sales permit (which comes with a duty to file monthly sales tax returns). A whole day at a swap meet or garage sale counts as one — but a single item offered on eBay counts as one, too.
I would support a constitutional amendment that replaced the income tax with a sales tax. But I would insist it be written to force the whole process to be simplified — and even then I wouldn’t trust that to work for very long.
Can’t we just report her for alleged tax fraud to make sure she gets investigated? Perhaps then the truth will come out.
Think it through. The organization this woman “defrauded” wants to rid the world of consensual sex-for-money. Do you really want to punish someone for looting and pillaging that organization? I would rather encourage it to happen more often.
No, we want Moran to be exposed as a fraud; it has nothing to do with “punishment”.
Rachel Moran:
After more nonsense with the bank today where I have been advised that Justine and I will need to set an appointment for next week, we have decided that the commonsense thing to do is have our funding transferred into my account, where it will stay only until we have set up our joint account. [emphasis added]
Don’t these people watch Father Ted? ‘The money was just resting in my account’ was his ‘explanation’ of the mess that landed him in Craggy Island (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Ted_Crilly#Father_Ted_Crilly"link).
This won’t end well.
Why is it called “SPACE International?” It has what to do with astronomy or space travel? Will I understand it better if I send them money while drinking TANG?
It either refers to the space between one’s ears necessary to believe Moran’s claims, or else the space in her bank account it was established to fill.
I believe you’re right. And in truth, the TANG will go down easier.