No wonder Dan Maes hid his tax returns
As I mentioned in my blog note earlier today, I’m not going to bash Dan Maes on things which I’ve assumed about him without actually meeting him. But that doesn’t mean I can’t and won’t write about things we do know.
And unfortunately for Dan Maes, the new information isn’t good.
Dan Maes’ web site says “Dan has over 20 years of progressively successful experience in sales, management, mid-size and small business development in multiple industries.” His resume says “Specialist in both start-ups and turnarounds.” However, other than starting his own “Amaesing Credit Solutions” in 2005 – more on that in a minute – his resume is almost entirely that of a salesman for “enhanced telecommunications services including voice messaging, unified communications, and audio and data collaboration.”
I’m not putting down any job that anybody has, but with Dan campaigning with lines like “And it’s time we put a real business manager/executive into an executive office", one infers that he’s claiming not to be just an executive, but a success.
However, when Maes released his tax returns to the Constitutionalist Today, a small Colorado Springs paper which I like quite a bit, the numbers showed a man who has, financially speaking, struggled mightily in recent years. Having been involved in startups, I don’t begrudge a guy some low numbers during a company’s first year. But the Maes’ net income during 2007, his company’s best year, was under $52, ooo. And his average net income for the years surrounding 2007, i.e. 2004, 2005, and 2008, was only $17,000.
Again, I’m not sneering at someone who doesn’t make a lot of money. We all know that some years are tougher than others for many people, and 2008 certainly wasn’t great for people involved in the mortgage brokering business, which Maes was. But I have a huge problem with someone portraying himself as a successful executive when, as a Denver Post reporter noted, his “income has fallen below federal poverty guidelines for a family of four at least twice in the past five years” and just barely missed that line in a third year.
It’s no surprise that Maes refused to release his tax returns for as long as possible and then only to the friendliest possible outlet. When the Denver Post asked for the financial information, “After recommending The Post talk to his accountant, (Maes) declined to give the accountant permission to divulge information.”
Perhaps another early clue that Dan Maes is simply not the savvy businessman he claims is that four out of five items he lists in the “Education” section of his resume are seminars and self-study “via audio-tapes and books." Interestingly, he also doesn’t note the subject in which he earned his college degree.
Dan Maes’ business “success” has always smelled fishy to me. Now we see the fish.
How can it be that the GOP has chosen two candidates each of whom is, at least in a minor way, a fraud?
| Print article | This entry was posted by Rossputin on 07/21/10 at 07:01:47 am . Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. |
Yours truly
-
Following Obama's Economic Policies
Facebook NetworkedBlogs
XML Feeds
07/21/10 @ 08:38:04 am
I agree that it isn't pretty, but as I posted elsewhere, it shows up a lot like my business records, steady growth up until 2008, then utter devastation. I am only in business now by a thread, none of which is my doing.
Though, with some good initial honesty he would be able to sell his past much more effectively now.
07/21/10 @ 01:43:46 pm
Well since I'm clearly an apologist for Dan Maes here goes:
When I ran my own company, I tried to keep as much income in the company to minimize double taxation. I believe that is what he was doing in this instance. In 2000-2004 his income averaged $89K. 2005-2007 average combined business and personal income was $207,465 per year. As owner of the business having retained earnings in the company is better and can be subsequently distributed in the lean years to the owners.
$207K earned to the owners account per year is actually 7K more than the level that Obama said is rich, so I don't think that Mr. Maes business or earnings capability should be a significant de-merit in the campaign.
When you take a big wet $300K Hasanian bite out of Scott McInnis earnings in the same time period I bet his earnings will be lower than Dan Maes.
That said, I agree with you that we don't have the best candidates we could have had, but I don't believe that Mr. Maes is anywhere near the fraudulent level of Mr. McInnis.
The fish you are smelling are actually dregs of the November cooking by the elite/GOP insiders you and I both loathe.
We need to make sure that Mr. Hillman, Penry and other potentially rising GOP stars see that the Maes activists and libertarian Republicans will not tolerate another deal like that in the future.
07/21/10 @ 01:48:52 pm
Joe,
I note in the Constitutionalist Today piece that they quote Maes' company's "gross income", which I have always thought of as the same as revenues, and which do not reflect actual profit, net of expenses. That number I do not believe we've learned.
Therefore, I think you are making a mistake by adding personal net income and business "gross income".
If any readers are more expert in this type of accounting terminology, I would appreciate being told whether my view is correct or incorrect.
I'm not here to defend McInnis in any way and will not do so.
07/21/10 @ 02:34:57 pm
Ross,
You are correct - I can't add gross income of the business to personal income. In most service businesses (consulting for example) the only metric that matters to measure the success of the manager is gross income because it is all professional fees with almost no direct costs of the business. On the other hand a company providing products along with services has a gross income of x and must then pay out of gross income many direct costs to acquire the inputs to make the products that go along with the services.
While I would like to see that Dan Maes was making 200K per year for the last 10 years, I think that we should not say that someone only making $80K per year can't run for governor. From losing one father at age 5 (as Dan Maes did) to rise from poverty and create a business that pays him a fairly decent wage - tells me that he knows well the struggle of starting small businesses. While he may know failure better than success, this is not a disqualifier for Governor. It also is in the eye of the beholder what "successful executive" means far more than one's interpretation of what "original work" means to Scott McInnis.
I would like you to read and if possible comment on Mark Baisley's commentary on the present situation which can be found at :
http://denver.yourhub.com/HighlandsRanch/Stories/Elections/Story~839289.aspx
Joe
07/21/10 @ 03:10:51 pm
Unfortunately, Ross, you're right. According to Dan's resume, Amaesing Credit Solutions was structured as a LLC, which means that for tax purposes, the entity is essentially ignored. His gross income was the gross revenue for the business, and his net is what he reported on the tax return. Leah at Constitutionalist Today confirmed this reading of the information in correspondence with me.
This is a really bad business, I'm afraid. It isn't quite as drastic as Scott's meltdown, but Dan needed to be clean to have any chance to put up a fight against Mayor Hic!