If ACORN Paid Their Taxes, How Much Would That Lower The National Debt?

Update: Welcome Linkiest readers!

Steve Beatty at The Pelican Institute, (via The Dead Pelican) reports that "ACORN and several closely related groups now owe more than $1 million in state and federal taxes" as determined by Orleans Parish court filings.

The Pelican Institute report states that "groups affiliated with the Associations of Community Organizations for Reform Now have 10 federal tax bills of $1 million and four state tax bills of at least $28,000. One bill to ACORN itself is responsible for more than half that amount, at more than $545,000 for tax obligations dating back to 2004. Citizens Consulting, the accounting arm of ACORN, had a state bill of more than $300,000 as recently as January of this year, though records indicate it has been paid. The organization had not paid withholding Louisiana taxes for many quarters since the fall of 2002. From 2002 to 2006, ACORN agencies have received more than $5.4 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development alone..."

You can read the entire report here, but one has to wonder why ACORN doesn't feel the need to pay taxes. You may remember that a state investigation into ACORN was recently announced. No word if this tax issue is part of that or if the state investigation will just center on the embezzlement issues supposedly focused on the brother of the group's founder.

Matthew Vadum, writing for American Spectator, also points to ACORN's troubles:

Liz Wolf of Citizens Consulting Inc. (CCI), the shadowy financial nerve center of the ACORN network, has been negotiating with tax collectors on behalf of ACORN to have interest on its tax debts waived and to have some of the debts partially forgiven, Inman said.

CCI alone owes at least $400,000 in back taxes to the IRS, various states, and the District of Columbia. Collectively, the many affiliates within the ACORN network owe millions of dollars to tax authorities. The tax debts remain even after ACORN took a controversial payment from a developer in exchange for the group's support for a sports stadium and mixed-use complex in Brooklyn.

All this in addition to their various election fraud charges make ACORN one rotten nut.