Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Trouble in paradise
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Old 03-14-2009, 09:12 AM
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Cool Trouble in paradise

It seems the IRS is about to declare that the bonds that Morse sold over the years as municipals did not qualify as municipals. IRS has been auditing these instruments for about a year and what it boils down to, by example, is Morse would sell $60M of municipal bonds, use maybe $4m to build something like a rec center or the Savannah Center, and pay off the bonds over time out of homeowner monies. He would then turn around and sell the building (with and assessed value of $6m) back to one of the VCCDDs at $60M, thus netting himself $54m profit. IRS believes this is illegal for a number of reasons (google the Villages municipal bonds). It is believed that IRS is going to try to get him on as much as $271m + interest + penalties. This is a very complex issue but well spelled out in some of the articles you will find on line. The Orlando Sentinel has an investigative reporter doing some articles that are excellent.
IRS ranks participants in circumstances like this from least liable to most liable. In this case the bond purchasers are least liable, the home buyers next, the VCCDDs next, and finally Gary Morse most liable. That means that if the IRS does go after the Villages (and it looks like they are going to) Morse might be destroyed. Unfortunately the VCCDDs have no money but do have taxing power. They would be the next target after Morse so the only way they can get money is to tax homeowners. That tax burden could amount to approximately an $18,000 assessment per household.
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