Rep. Lauren Boebert's mileage reimbursement "raises red flags," ethics experts say

[turbinetree]

POLITICS NewsR
She paid out 22,000 to herself from campaign account; sum far surpasses predecessor’s reimbursements

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By JUSTIN WINGERTER | [e-mail] | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: February 2, 2021 at 2:06 p.m. | UPDATED: February 2, 2021 at 2:35 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert paid herself more than $22,000 in mileage reimbursements from her campaign account last year. Boebert’s campaign defends the reimbursements but three ethics experts who reviewed the money transfers for The Denver Post say they raise questions.

Candidates for federal office can legally reimburse themselves for miles driven in personal vehicles using the Internal Revenue Service’s mileage rate, which was 57.5 cents per mile for 2020. The Republican congresswoman from western Colorado wrote two checks totaling $22,259 from her campaign coffers for mileage between January and mid-November.

To justify those reimbursements, Boebert would have had to drive 38,712 miles while campaigning, despite having no publicly advertised campaign events in March, April or July, and only one in May. Furthermore, because the reimbursements came in two payments — a modest $1,060 at the end of March and $21,200 on Nov. 11 — Boebert would have had to drive 36,870 miles in just over seven months between April 1 and Nov. 11 to justify the second payment.

https://www.denverpost.com/2021/02/02/lauren-boebert-colorado-congress-campaign-finance/

Lock her up..............

Long haul truckers don't put that much mileage on trucks in one year, pilots on the other hand .............

[FSogol]

1. Maybe she's reimbursing the guys who invaded the Capitol?

[Initech]

2. She probably has the Oath Keepers on speed dial!

[bullimiami]

3. Or maybe she's just another crook.

[FSogol]

5. That's assumed when they have an (R) after their names. n/t

[Hortensis]

7. A really stupid crook. A snow shovel in the public till first thing.

[turbinetree]

4. Let's check her accounts, you make a a very good point

and I have ..... .........for her............

[kysrsoze]

6. Grifters...

[jonstl08]

8. Required documentation

I work as a tax preparer during tax season. Seems she used the standard mileage deduction which requires you to keep a log of all the miles you drive for business purposes. I instruct my clients to map quest everything for record keeping. There are also apps now that can keep track of it. If no record is done we are instructed not to allow the deduction since it raises a major red flag with the IRS.

She should have kept good records. If she is audited she will probably receive a partial deduction with the instructions to keep accurate records or the deduction will be disallowed in the future.

[2naSalit]

9. I avaeraged around 90,000 miles a year...

As a full-time over the road driver. And I drove a minimum of ten hours a day. So she would not have had time to talk to anyone or even get out of the car if she covered that many miles in a campaign. She's obviously cooking her numbers for monetary gain at the expense of we taxpayers.