Remind me - do you have an accountant do your taxes?

I do. Have done since 2007. At one point my wife and I had three businesses in two states. Shit gets complicated. And maybe it's because I'm in the entertainment industry, but the basic game of accountants is "we're going to save you every fucking nickel."

I've been through five accountants. The first one I shared with Hans Zimmer. His entire client list got audited because he was doing shit like not declaring foreign holdings. Except me. Apparently I was two poor. The second one had a death in the family and took two years to do one return. The third saddled us with the three businesses in two states (all of which needed to pay taxes). The fourth quit to take care of her kid. ALL of them were about dancing.

Buddy of mine will tell his accountants to be more aggressive. He's been audited three times. Because, as he says, "the worst they can do is make you pay the money you owe." It's a game: how much can you keep? How creative can you be? How many laws can you bend?

The odds of you ending up indicted are infinitesimal. That is, unless you're fronting for Mafiya oligarchs. Then your history of game-playing suddenly hits a new level.

People forget: the Mondale/Ferraro ticket was marred by Geraldine Ferraro hiring a housekeeper without checking her goddamn citizenship papers. In 1979. Shit that people treat as commonplace becomes ZOMG SCANDAL once it's useful.

That doesn't mean Cohen skating on $4m in taxes isn't a crime. But it does mean that we'd never know about it and he'd never pay any consequences if his boss wasn't president.