Around a month ago, the Hungarian government made a small splash in the American press after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to overrule New York City’s efforts to collect taxes from the countries that had big back-tax bills for their consulates in the city. At the time, Hungary’s case caused especial ire among local opponents of the amnesty, owning to the fact that just before the change the Hungarian government had written to the city saying it was (finally) ready to pay the city $32.5 million to clear up old tax bills on its consulate on Manhattan’s East 52nd Street. But Hungary may now be on the hook for an even larger amount, due to a lawsuit by a Florida-based tax consulting firm which says it is owed $44 million for helping whittle down the consulate’s original tax bill of $121 million.
According to index.hu, the firm, H. Elliott Greene & Associates, claims it was mandated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs back in March to hold talks with the city and see what it could do about the big bill, which accumulated during the 18 years the consulate paid no taxes. The company says that it was promised a 50% “success fee,” and succeeded in getting $88 million lopped off the original bill.
The portal says it is unclear on what criteria the deal with the firm had been made, and the foreign ministry says it knows nothing about the legal action. But Harris E. Green, the principal of the company, says the ministry knows all about the lawsuit, and he has evidence that he thinks would allow him to prevail in court.
Whether this is true or not, we have no idea. But if the company does win its suit, maybe the best solution would be just to hand over the New York townhouse, which already seems to have caused Hungary enough trouble.
Beautiful!
Good job and best of luck. Screw them all bolshevik jews. Two thumbs ups!
Talking about this zionist government of “ours”vs. Green and Kohn
“low” suit is a simple joy. It’s like dog fight (exept I prefer dogs
rather than jews) zionist shit eats zionist shit, great!
Amazing, simply amazing. AFTER Hungary finally agreed to cough-up $32,500,000, the stupid bitch Clinton-Bitch had unilaterally “waved” all taxes due? Just who the fuck is she, a Sultan of America?
And just what the fuck does the US federal gov’t has got to do with NYC’s property taxes, anyhow? Fuck the US federal government, I say!
Meanwhile, this poor Florida consultancy will think twice about getting their hands all shitty again by shaking on a deal with the Steal-Thy-Own-Mother Commie Honkies.
This is disturbing in two ways.
One, that a private law firm can have a $44,000,000 claim against us. Let’s not play the “blame game” here, because when you don’t play by the rules of the host country, this is what can happen.
The second thing that bugs me is that we were not paying property taxes on the embassy for 18 years. This bothers me even more than the fisrt issue, because our govt must have thought things in the US work like they do in Hungary. America is corrupt all right, but not quite like our Socialist leaders imagine corruption. In the US, you better pay your taxes, or you will get killed with penalites, fines and all bad things. (Al Capone was jailed for tax evasion) Our corrupt leaders took the money that should have been paid as taxes and did God knows what with it. As a result, some friggin law firm wants $44 million from us.
Don’t get me wrong people. I don’t care whether the US govt gets tax money from us or not. It’s just that only a nation that has real economic and military leverage with Washington can carry on in such a manner. Maybe Russia or China can get away with such an attitude, but us, NO.
We need good lawyers, and we better listen to them when we are operating on foreign soil. The $44 million is a non-compliance penalty.
Thanks Gyurcsi. We’ll take it out of your salary.
Let’s not play the “blame game” here, because when you don’t play by the rules of the host country, this is what can happen.
The second thing that bugs me is that we were not paying property taxes on the embassy for 18 years.
…
Thanks Gyurcsi. We’ll take it out of your salary.
Farkas László at September 25, 2009 2:18 AM
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18 years?
I did not know that ‘Gyurcsi’ was Hungarian PM that long?
I remember several others also, like Viktor Orban.
Basically *no* post-1990 Government have paid, so why just blame MSZP?
Yes MSZP !! there currently responsible. 2 terms in government they should have fixed this up a long time ago.
Gyurcsi was not PM for 18 years, but his govt was part of the problem. We get the picture; others could be named as well, but I was too beside myself last night to go there. It’s just that it is so reflective of the national attitude, and in this case, blew up in our faces.
This is a mess that will get more expensive by the minute. Whenever an American law firm has it’s hooks into you to the tune of $44 million; you had better pay up immediately. If you don’t, they will take you to court. If you lose, (as I think we would in this case) you must pay the legal fees of both your side and the winning side as well. This can run into further millions. Armed with a judicial order to pay up, the law firm can then have Hungarian assets in the US frozen or attached. If what we have in the US is not enough to satisfy the judgment, the law firm can go to an other country and run further legal proceedings against us. They can hound us to the ends of the earth, blocking our assets until they get the many millions in judgment and fees that they feel they will be owed.
If on the other hand the US State dept interferes too much on our behalf, they can sue the US govt. The cost of doing that of course can be added to their claims against us. It can easily run into a $100 million plus sized headache.
This whole incident is a symbol of the neglect and mismanagment of our country over the last 20 years. That’s money we could have put to use at home; now we can suck air.
Based upon this sorry incident, I am publicly calling for a parlimentary commission to do a financial and tax compliance risk assesment of all Hungarian govt owned properties throughout the world.
Where else have we not been paying property taxes besides Manhattan? Something tells me that this must not have been an isolated incident, but rather part of a pattern. We need to find out.
How many more govt’s throughout the world, how many more law firms will we be hearing from? If the pigeons should come home to roost on this one, I have a feeling the sums involved would crucify us. All of this trouble was so avoidable.
This is money we could have used to educate our children; instead it will go towards keeping a few foreign lawyers in a plutocratic lifestyle.