One From the Police Blotter

A rather obvious case of Bozo behavior showed up this past week. Let’s head to Newark, New Jersey. Leslie Wofford was a police communications officer with the Newark Police Department. Back in 2004 Officer Wofford wanted to increase her take-home pay, so she increased her withholding exemptions. Now, did she got to 4? Perhaps 7? Remember, I said Bozo behavior.

Officer Wofford elected 99 exemptions. That’s a lot of exemptions.

Officer Wofford did increase her pay, but at a cost. When she filed her tax return, she would owe a lot more income tax. But Officer Wofford had a solution for that, too. She didn’t file a tax return. This did not end up well for Officer Wofford.

When you file a Form W-4 with 10 or more exemptions, it’s sent to the IRS. Now there are legitimate reasons why you might have that many exemptions, and if you do there’s not a problem in claiming them. However, when you don’t and when you don’t file tax returns, trouble will likely happen. Add in repeating this for a few years (through 2008) and the trouble will likely lead to ClubFed. Officer Wofford pleaded guilty to tax evasion this week.

In any case, Officer Wofford’s behavior really was Bozo, and she’ll likely get a chance to find out what it’s like on the other side of the fence.

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