Taxes: No Hablo Ingles

"As I've spent time basking in the sun on the beach at Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, where I have a little house facing a big ocean, I've thought of telling God not to worry about me if it turns out there's an overbooking or backlog on people waiting to get into heaven. I'll be OK right here until it's time for me to come.''

— U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

God has not yet summoned Rangel. But some pesky reporters have come knocking, and the IRS is probably close behind. It seems Rangel neglected to pay taxes for many years on the rental income on his little piece of paradise in Punta Cana. He apparently owes about $10,000 in back taxes.

This could be written off as a relatively minor financial miscue, except that Rangel, 78, heads the House Ways and Means Committee, the place where America's tax laws are written. Although tax law is opaque to many Americans, Charlie Rangel, of all people, ought to have a better grasp of taxable income.

"Mistakes; we all make 'em," he said. "We all have to say we're sorry, but we all don't have to attack each other."

Rangel's lawyer blames the mistake on the congressman's wife, who handles his finances, and the accountant who does his taxes. Rangel bought his three-bedroom villa in the resort 20 years ago.

Since then, he has earned about $75,000 in rental income that was not reported on his income tax forms.

Rangel apparently never received the money. The resort's owners used the rental income from his home to pay down his mortgage debt. The resort sent him financial statements, but the congressman said that they were in Spanish. "Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, they'd start speaking Spanish," he said.

Rangel — many of whose constituents in New York City's Spanish Harlem and Washington Heights neighborhoods are Spanish-speaking Dominican immigrants — speaks only conversational Spanish. Still, finding an able translator shouldn't have been difficult.

Rangel has rankled Republicans over the years by calling for higher taxes on the wealthy. Now many of those same Republicans are calling for him to give up his chairmanship of Ways and Means. That's not likely, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recently said it would be improper to take action against Rangel prior to the results of the ongoing investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

A congressman since 1971, Rangel long has championed the interests of ordinary citizens. But the chairman of Ways and Means shouldn't short the IRS and then make lame excuses. If the ethics investigation finds evidence of misconduct, Rangel should step down as committee chairman. He could console himself on the beach at Punta Cana.

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