Konsolen Treiber » professor at Saint Louis

ST. LOUIS -- Attorneys for the St. Louis Rams have filed a tax appeal with the state of Missouri, seeking a refund of about $400,000. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Rams have also asked the state to forgive an additional $445,000 in unpaid taxes. So far, the state has refused to give any money back to the NFL team. The Rams have contested tax assessments before -- theyve filed six appeals since 2008, amounting to $4.7 million at face value. Theres no way to tell what happened with each case, but the Missouri Department of Revenue says four of the cases were settled. The state would not offer details, claiming that sales tax receipts are closed records. A message seeking comment from the Rams on Thursday was not returned. The Post-Dispatch reported that the appeals began after a state audit in September 2008, when the Rams were told that the team owed nearly $1.4 million in unpaid taxes on luxury club memberships. The Rams protested that assessment -- the first of the six appeals. "Some people are just a little more aggressive in trying to diminish their state tax bills," said Henry Ordower, a tax law professor at Saint Louis University. He said appeals have been more common in recent years because states have sought ways to increase their tax collection. "Every state has been more assertive in collecting state taxes," Ordower said. "States need money." The Rams collect about 4 per cent in state sales tax, 4.5 per cent in city sales tax and an additional 5 per cent for the city amusement tax, totalling about $13.50 on a $100 ticket. The team also sells something called a "club membership." Club memberships add $1,000 on top of the ticket price, and members get food and beverage discounts, entry to draft previews, training camp practices and special events, and other benefits. In the 2008 filing, the Rams argued that club memberships are benefits, not tickets, and shouldnt be subjected to sales taxes. In the other appeals, the team argued it is not subject to states sales tax at all. Then in 2011, the Rams said they discovered they were "erroneously" calculating sales taxes on a base ticket price inflated by the city taxes. That means the city was collecting about 40 cents too much on each $100 ticket. That led to appeals for reimbursement of $401,000 and $445,000 over the past two years. Wholesale Air Max Australia . The Canadian Football Leagues all-time passing leader said he has not made a final decision, but he will discuss his future with Montreal Alouettes owner Bob Wetenhall on the weekend. Air Max Australia . The Oilers jumped into the free agent market early by signing defencemen Keith Aulie (six-foot-six, 228 pounds) and Mark Fayne (6-3, 210 pounds) and left-winger Benoit Pouliot (6-3, 197-pounds). Two days earlier MacTavish traded lightweight forward Sam Gagner to Tampa Bay for 6-3, 203-pound right winger Ted Purcell. http://www.australiacheapairmax.com/ . As the only competitor to try two quads, much less complete them, Kovtun ended the day nearly nine points ahead of Japans Tatsuki Machida, who opened with a clean quad but then stepped out of the triple toe loop that was the second jump in his combination. Air Max Australia Cheap . -- Jim Furyk was 10 shots worse and right where he wanted to be Saturday in the BMW Championship. Air Max Wholesale . The Grizzlies erased most of a 25-point deficit before Durant, the leagues scoring champion, got hot. PRETORIA, South Africa -- A South African police officer swung a cricket bat at Oscar Pistorius bullet-marked bathroom door during his murder trial on Wednesday, using two key pieces of evidence to re-enact the night he killed his girlfriend. Police Col. J.G. Vermeulen faced tough questioning from Pistorius defence lawyer, who tried to discredit the police investigation of the shooting and alleged that Vermeulen, a forensic expert, made glaring missteps in his analysis. Pistorius lawyers secured bail for him last year after contending that police contaminated or tampered with evidence from the home where he fatally shot Reeva Steenkamp, firing through the bathroom door as she cowered inside during the pre-dawn hours of Valentines Day 2013. Pistorius says the killing was a mistake; the prosecution alleges the 27-year-old double-amputee intentionally shot Steenkamp after an argument. The actual door that Pistorius shot through a year ago was erected in the Pretoria courtroom Wednesday, and the bat he used that night was used in the demonstrations. There was even a toilet cubicle behind the door, recreated to the exact specifications of the small area of Pistorius bathroom where the 29-year-old model was fatally shot, Vermeulen said. Below the doors handle, four bullet holes were clearly visible. Steenkamp was hit three times in the hip, arm and head. One shot missed, the court has heard. Pistorius says he used the bat to break down the door after realizing he shot Steenkamp, mistaking her for an intruder. Kneeling, Vermeulen swung the bat to show how he believed Pistorius struck the door from a low angle, indicating he was on his stumps at the time. Defence lawyer Barry Roux insisted Pistorius was wearing his prosthetic legs, saying the bat marks on the door were low because he swung with a bent back. The back-and-forth over whether Pistorius, the first amputee to run at the Olympics, was on his prosthetic limbs or not is important because it could match parts of his story that he accidentally shot Steenkamp, or expose inconsistencies in it. Last year, prosecutors maintained Pistorius was on his prosthesees when he fired through the door, arguing the runner planned the killing while putting on his artificial limbs.dddddddddddd But in a reversal, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said in court Wednesday that he did not dispute the defences contention that the runner was on his stumps when he opened fire. The athlete has said he fearfully approached the bathroom on his stumps and shot Steenkamp by mistake, thinking she was an intruder hiding behind the door. According to his account, he then put on his prostheses and tried to kick down the locked door, striking it with a cricket bat in a panicked attempt to reach his girlfriend. Roux turned up the pressure on Vermeulen, saying the police investigator failed to properly look at another mark on the door the defence says was made by Pistorius prosthetic leg as he tried to kick it down, leaving a piece of sock fabric lodged in the wood. The defence lawyer also indicated that police investigators might have left a shoe print on the door, the door itself might have been kept in a policemans office and not in proper evidence storage, and missing fragments from the door werent examined. Vermeulen said the door was kept in a "body bag." In an evidence photo, a faint footmark on one of the door panels could be seen. "It looks like a police shoe print," Vermeulen said. "How did that come about?" Roux asked. Vermeulen said he did not know. Earlier, Vermeulen also said a metal panel on the wall of the main bathroom in Pistorius home had been damaged by being hit with a "hard" object. The panel was new evidence. A photo of the damaged plate was shown. Pistorius faces a possible life sentence if convicted of murder for killing Steenkamp. The judge, who watched the demonstrations Wednesday, will ultimately decide on the verdict. There is no trial by jury in South Africa. Pistorius was born without fibula bones because of a congenital defect, and his legs were amputated when he was 11 months old. He ran on carbon-fiber blades and is a multiple Paralympic medallist . He also competed at the London Olympics but didnt win a medal. 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