O’Neal: IRS cleared him on Perdue tax issue

Update: 3:53 p.m.: O’Neal argues in his letter to fellow House Republicans that he had nothing to do with the Senate amending the tax legislation to make it retroactive to 2004, and thereby making Perdue a beneficiary.

But in 2006 the AJC reported that Senate Finance Committee minutes show that O’Neal personally appeared before the committee and asked that the amendment be added and the bill passed.

Original post:

Rep. Larry O’Neal (R-Bonaire), one of the leading candidates to be the next speaker of the House, told his Republican colleagues Tuesday that questions over a tax bill he championed years ago were subject to an IRS audit that cleared his name.

O’Neal, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, is one of four Republicans who on Thursday will offer themselves as candidates to be the next speaker, replacing Rep. Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram), who announced this month that he would resign Jan. 1.

In 2005, O’Neal sponsored legislation that removed tax penalties for interstate property exchanges, something he said every other state in the country had already done. But because the bill was eventually amended in the Senate to make it retroactive, Gov. Sonny Perdue saw a major tax benefit for property he purchased out of state.

And because O’Neal was Perdue’s private lawyer (although he says he no longer represents the governor), the transaction raised questions and led Democrats to file an ethics complaint. Those questions have continued to dog his bid for speaker, something he said in his letter has been exacerbated by his “opponent” in the race, although he did not say which opponent.

While the ethics complaint was dismissed by fellow lawmakers, O’Neal revealed for the first time Tuesday that the IRS “sent a team of federal auditors to conduct a full forensic audit of every aspect of this land issue transaction. It was a multi-week, full-blown, on-site examination.”

O’Neal said he never revealed this before because attorney-client privilege required him to keep it private. But, he said in his letter to the caucus, Perdue has given him permission to discuss the details.

“The result was that the IRS made zero adjustment to the taxes involved and exonerated me once and for all for any wrongdoing in this matter.”

O’Neal said he deserves to have his name cleared, “especially when the IRS has literally torn this whole matter apart and said it was clean.”

Finally, O’Neal said he will stop practicing law should he be elected speaker.