EVEN JUSTICE SCALIA WON'T DEFEND A CAPITALIST PIG

Well, I'm impressed that Scalia didn't try to bullshit his way to letting the Pig walk.

US Supreme Court rules Texas billionaire owes tax shelter penalty

By Patrick Temple-West
WASHINGTON Tue Dec 3, 2013 1:53pm EST

Dec 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously ruled that Texas billionaire Billy Joe "Red" McCombs must pay steep penalties to the Internal Revenue Service related to more than $45 million he tried to shield from taxes.

McCombs, former owner of the Minnesota Vikings football team, and his business partner Gary Woods in 1999 set up a partnership to run a tax shelter known as a "current options bring reward alternatives," or COBRA. It was designed to create financial losses to offset windfall gains McCombs was expecting.

The tax shelter itself had already been ruled a sham by lower courts. But McCombs and Woods argued that a 40 percent IRS penalty should not apply.

In an opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the high court said the Texans' arguments were "unpersuasive."

"At the end of the day, Woods' and McCombs' $3.2 million investment generated tax losses that, if treated as valid, could have shielded more than $45 million of income from taxation," Scalia wrote.

"The penalty is applicable to tax underpayments resulting from the partners' participation in the COBRA tax shelter," Scalia wrote.