S15.E08: Can I Light You Up?

[Desert Rat]

On 4/10/2021 at 2:57 PM, b2H said:

Might be interesting to know when the last time was that they filed.......

If my understanding is correct (though it couldn't possibly apply to this bunch), these families fly under the radar by getting paid under the table and never incurring any income so no taxes are ever paid.  Now, TLC is paying this bunch, but I don't know how the finances are being handled.

I bet they were above the radar just enough to collect nice big stimulus checks for themselves and Kody`s spawn. 

[Roslyn]

On 4/10/2021 at 5:57 PM, b2H said:

Might be interesting to know when the last time was that they filed.......

If my understanding is correct (though it couldn't possibly apply to this bunch), these families fly under the radar by getting paid under the table and never incurring any income so no taxes are ever paid.  Now, TLC is paying this bunch, but I don't know how the finances are being handled.

Kody mentioned on an episode this season that their "family tax return is 50 pages long", so they are filing maybe as one big LLC type of thing

[Elizzikra]

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They are not married,

They consider themselves married. He is as "married" to her as he is to Christine or Janelle. As much as he has said that the relationship is dead, he still considers her one of his wives. He says he is a husband to four wives. 

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but for all intents and purposes he has told Meri both verbally and in action and deeds that it's over

He hasn't though. He hasn't ever said (as far as I know) "you are no longer one of my wives." He hasn't stopped including her in family discussions. I know they are no longer legally married, but there has to be some way in plural families that they "officially" end a spiritual marriage and as far as we have seen, that hasn't happened yet.

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these families fly under the radar by getting paid under the table and never incurring any income so no taxes are ever paid. 

Even if you don't have taxable income, you still have to file a tax return. Maybe they have "postponed" that for several years.

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Kody mentioned on an episode this season that their "family tax return is 50 pages long", so they are filing maybe as one big LLC type of thing

Maybe - but an LLC is a business and you'd file a corporate return. They still have to file individual tax returns (Christine, Janelle, and Meri). Kody and Robyn would file as married, filing either separately or jointly. Then the Brown Family Grift, LLC would file a separate corporate tax return. It's a mess, no matter how you look at it.

Edited April 12, 2021 by Elizzikra

[ginger90]

1 minute ago, Elizzikra said:

Even if you don't have taxable income, you still have to file a tax return

This actually isn’t true.

[Elizzikra]

2 minutes ago, ginger90 said:

This actually isn’t true.

No? I was under the impression that every adult had to file a return.

[ginger90]

4 minutes ago, Elizzikra said:

No? I was under the impression that every adult had to file a return.

There are exceptions.

[Elizzikra]

8 minutes ago, ginger90 said:

There are exceptions.

Ok. If you have very low income and don't want to claim a refund or a credit, you don't have to file (https://www.usa.gov/who-needs-to-file-taxes). But even if the Browns' income is that low, I don't see them passing up the chance to claim a credit or a refund on anything that might be withheld - though I don't know that any of them works for anyone that might be withholding taxes for them.

[Sandy W]

1 hour ago, Elizzikra said:

 

He hasn't though. He hasn't ever said (as far as I know) "you are no longer one of my wives." He hasn't stopped including her in family discussions. I know they are no longer legally married, but there has to be some way in plural families that they "officially" end a spiritual marriage and as far as we have seen, that hasn't happened yet.

I could be mistaken, but it seems to me that in one of his "talking heads" last week, he explained that under the tenets of his religion, the husband could not dismiss a wife and proclaim themselves spiritually unmarried to that individual.  The wife however could, and that seems to be what he is awaiting Meri to do.

[Yeah No]

26 minutes ago, Sandy W said:

I could be mistaken, but it seems to me that in one of his "talking heads" last week, he explained that under the tenets of his religion, the husband could not dismiss a wife and proclaim themselves spiritually unmarried to that individual.  The wife however could, and that seems to be what he is awaiting Meri to do.

If that's true I'm sure she's waiting until she's squeezed the very last penny out of her cut of the show first.  So until they're cancelled he's stuck with her!

[LilyD]

On 4/11/2021 at 6:12 PM, jacksgirl said:

Jenelle's Flag house looks small and dated. Christine's slightly bigger, but a real step down from the McMansions in LV. And Robyn's looks updated and huge. I hate Kody. To answer your question, all of these women would be better off without you. 

Couldn’t agree more on your point re. houses. I highly doubt Christine and Janelle are happy there.

The only plausible reason why Janelle and Christine probably agreed to the LV sale (if you ask me) is because those mortgages had become unaffordable. 

[MV713]

On 4/9/2021 at 8:53 PM, Granny58 said:

But the "legal" divorce came out of left field.  

I dont agree- at that time Meri was on her way "out" and the divorce played perfectly into her Catfish exit plan.

[Roslyn]

32 minutes ago, MV713 said:

I dont agree- at that time Meri was on her way "out" and the divorce played perfectly into her Catfish exit plan.

The legal divorce happened a good 6 months before the catfish began.

[smarty]

3 hours ago, Roslyn said:

The legal divorce happened a good 6 months before the catfish began.

If I recall correctly, didn't the catfish person use the divorce as way to get "in" with Meri, by sympathizing with her on twitter?

 

[winsomeone]

When I was first on SS, I continued to file even though I owed no taxes. After a couple of years, i actually received a letter from the IRS telling me to not file, as it was needless paper work for them to go through.

[Twopper]

On 4/12/2021 at 12:45 PM, LilyD said:

On 4/11/2021 at 11:12 AM, jacksgirl said:

Jenelle's Flag house looks small and dated. Christine's slightly bigger, but a real step down from the McMansions in LV. And Robyn's looks updated and huge. I hate Kody. To answer your question, all of these women would be better off without you. 

Couldn’t agree more on your point re. houses. I highly doubt Christine and Janelle are happy there.

The only plausible reason why Janelle and Christine probably agreed to the LV sale (if you ask me) is because those mortgages had become unaffordable. 

 Janelle has claimed to be thriving ---as opposed to striving---in Flagstaff even though there seems to be no evidence that she is any happier there tnan in LV. 

They agreed to leave LV because they rilly had no choice.   I think they all felt between a rock and a hard place.   Three of the four oldest girls had married and at the time Mariah wasn't engaged.   Based on watching the Duggars experience,  viewers don't really care about watching the boys get married off.  Only Maddie had produced a grandchild.  They were left with nothing much to film since TLC didn't send them off on the Grand Tour of Europe like it did the Duggars.  I don't think they could afford living in the cul-de-sac without TLC funding.  Meri might have been able to, but she also had a 30 year mortgage on the house in Parowan.   They certainly weren't going to downsize in LV.  They might have been able to negotiate for better terms on their mortgages, but that would make even more boring episodes.

Kody is impulsive and they have always had a peripatetic life style.  19 moves is more than most military families make.  Kody has said he gets angry when he feels there is no hope.  I think he feels hopeless about getting many more seasons out of tlc so that makes him angry.  He should be angry at himself, but he lashes out at Meri and Christine. 

They must be in a precarious financial position at this point.  He was delusional enough to think he could unload 4 houses in 30 days and profit enough to buy land in Flagstaff, plus live in rentals for 2 years while building a polygamous family castle on a prairie dog invested property from a realtor who told him to line a retaining pond and turn it into a nice private lake.

I think I am going to work on my last paragraph and enter it in the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest for next year.

 

[laurakaye]

55 minutes ago, Twopper said:

 I think I am going to work on my last paragraph and enter it in the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest for next year.

And now I am going down the rabbit hole of this fiction contest that I have never heard of.  Thank you! 

[Roslyn]

On 4/12/2021 at 6:01 PM, smarty said:

If I recall correctly, didn't the catfish person use the divorce as way to get "in" with Meri, by sympathizing with her on twitter?

 

The divorce was kept quiet until it leaked online in January 2015 just around the time their new season was airing.  The catfish was a complicated timeline ,but most likely some of it was already happening before people noticed in Jan and Feb that Meri was flirting with the "Sam" person openly on twitter. 

Before Sam, Meri also flirted openly with band members of a local band as well.