Charlie Rangels donor a loophole

Congressional records and interviews show that Mr. Rangel was instrumental in preserving a lucrative tax loophole that benefited an oil-drilling company last year, while at the same time its chief executive was pledging $1 million to the project, the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service.

Mr. Rangel, the Donor and the Tax Break

The company, Nabors Industries, was one of four corporations based in the United States that were widely criticized in 2002 and 2003 for opening offices in the Caribbean to reduce their federal tax payments. Mr. Rangel was among dozens of representatives from both parties who bitterly opposed those offshore moves and, in 2004, pushed unsuccessfully for legislation to make the companies pay more tax.

But in 2007, when the United States Senate tried to crack down on the companies, Mr. Rangel, who had recently been sworn in as House Ways and Means chairman, fought to protect them. The tax shelter for the four companies was preserved, saving Nabors an estimated tens of millions of dollars annually and depriving the federal treasury of $1.1 billion in revenue over a decade, according to a Congressional analysis by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

But wait! There's more:

The Post reported Sunday that Rangel took a "homestead" tax break on a Washington, DC, house for years while also occupying multiple apartments in New York City, possibly running afoul of laws in both cities.