P.M. BRIEFING : It’s On Again for Actor’s Vt. Tax Bill
Don Johnson was back on the hook today for a Vermont income tax bill of more than $50,000--at least for now.
The state Senate’s Finance Committee on Wednesday killed a provision of a new tax law that would exempt entertainers from state income tax, retroactive to Jan. 1, 1986, and applying to Johnson.
The committee approved the exemption Tuesday, but 24 hours and dozens of telephone calls from angry constituents later, the panel reversed itself. “We realized we had been rather hasty in this matter,” committee Chairwoman Mary Just Skinner told her colleagues.
The state had billed Johnson for money he earned in Vermont while making the 1987 film “Sweetheart’s Dance.”
In a lengthy statement issued today by his press agent, Johnson said he regretted that the issue had been “personalized” to focus on him rather than the policy implications of the tax.
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