Another Cabinet Appointee With Tax Problems

[Puppycow]

The Geithner issue is worse for me. Being Treasury Secretary he is in charge of the IRS. That creates a moral hazard when it comes to citizens being honest on their taxes. From what I have read, his salary was "grossed" up by the IMF to cover the taxes he didn't pay so he knew he was liable for them but just didn't pay them until he became the nominee.

Well, they said that even if Geithner had wanted to pay, there was no mechanism for the IRS to accept his payment. Once the statute of limitations expires, basically you're off the hook. It's on the IRS then for not catching it sooner.

 

[Texas]

Well, they said that even if Geithner had wanted to pay, there was no mechanism for the IRS to accept his payment. Once the statute of limitations expires, basically you're off the hook. It's on the IRS then for not catching it sooner.

Still no excuse in my mind. If he was up for another position I wouldn't be so upset but he now has control of the IRS and that really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[Ziggurat]

Well, they said that even if Geithner had wanted to pay, there was no mechanism for the IRS to accept his payment.

This is simply false. The IRS will accept payment from anyone, at any time, in order to pay down the national debt. There's even instructions for how to do so included in the standard 1040 instruction booklet.

 

[Skeptic]

Well, they said that even if Geithner had wanted to pay, there was no mechanism for the IRS to accept his payment.

I dunno, Puppycow. Somehow, "the IRS refused to take my money" doesn't sound like a legitimate excuse.

 

[Alt+F4]

This also seems vaguely corrupt. Who was this "wealthy friend" who lent Daschle a car and driver? Just because they're great buddies?

This seems worse than the Geithner thing to me.

Me too.

As a politician, Mr. Daschle often struck a populist note, but his financial disclosure report shows that in the last two years, he received $2.1 million from a law firm, Alston & Bird; $2 million in consulting fees from a private equity firm run by a major Democratic fundraiser, Leo Hindery Jr. (which provided him with the car and driver); and at least $220,000 for speeches to health care, pharmaceutical and insurance companies. He also received nearly $100,000 from health-related companies affected by federal regulation.

Mr. Obama has instituted rules requiring former lobbyists in his administration to pledge not to deal with former clients. As a strategic adviser to companies, Mr. Daschle did not have to register as a lobbyist, and is not technically covered by those rules.

So Daschle is a "strategic adviser" and not a lobbyist? I see.....

Linky:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/us/politics/01daschle.html?hp

 

[marksman]

Obama "absolutely" stands by Daschle

Not surprised. A little chagrined, but I was never a fan of Daschle, and was kind of hoping Obama could takes this opportunity to replace him with someone else.

 

[The Painter]

Yeah, um... no. If your taxes are complicated enough that you can't be certain of how to correctly handle them, hire someone.

I haven't done my own taxes in years. Last year it cost me 1600 dollars to have them done.

When Geithnerwas approved, it was absolutely the wrong thing to do. If Daschle gets approved it will set a pattern. This is not CHANGE. It's the same old wine in a new bottle.

 

[NoZed Avenger]

Good point. Where you when W appointed Brownie? Or when Cheney was elected? Or when ...

I guess that some folks don't realize how messed up the US tax code is, and how easy it is to find that an "interpretation" has changed here or there.

That comes no where near to applying to Daschle. He wasn't tripped up on some obscure technicality.

 

[Just thinking]

I'm confused - is this Hope or Change?

Let's hope there is a change.

PS: Wasn't it Biden saying something about it being Patriotic to pay one's taxes?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

The tax fudging here sucks but waaaaaaaay worse is Obama wanting this insurance industry lobbyist in charge of health care reform.

This is a huge disappointment. As is the news media's thinking the tax issue is the headliner.

From my link in the next post:

AMY GOODMAN: And on that issue of receiving money from the health insurance industry, can you elaborate on that further?

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Well, Daschle, who is unquestionably, among legislators, a leading figure in understanding and knowing about healthcare, went out and made a lot of money from speeches. I mean, I give speeches for money. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that per se. But he received so much money, and it came so heavily from the insurance companies.

I mean, why do we need to have health insurance? Do we have kindergarten insurance? Do we have police insurance? Do we have road insurance? This is a bizarre system that we have that is unlike that anywhere else in the world, gives us the highest costs in the world and does not make our health status better.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

And then there is the issue this really represents an obviously near universal practice of the rich and powerful avoiding taxes by calling things borrowed and gifts. Ted Stevens' tax evasion was colored with the same scheme.

Democracy Now this morning:

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Well, beyond his problem with having been paid enormous sums of money by the insurance companies, which are a central feature in our healthcare problems, Mr. Daschle was provided with a car and driver by a hedge fund as part of his work for them. When you receive a perk like that, you have to pay taxes. He owes—I think it’s $143,000 in taxes on this. He wasn’t apparently candid with the Obama people upfront about this.

And my guess is he is the norm. If the IRS had the money to check up on everyone who works for these big banks and hedge funds, I think they would find vast amounts of perks that are not being taxed. This is what I—part of my arguing that there are two systems of taxation in the United States, separate and unequal: one for working people and one for the rich and powerful, particularly those who own businesses or control them. Daschle’s problems are very troubling, and—but my guess is that if we had a thorough investigation by the IRS, we would find out he’s the norm among those people.

...I have no reason to think that this is a partisan thing. It’s a money thing.

 

[Texas]

And then there is the issue this really represents an obviously near universal practice of the rich and powerful avoiding taxes by calling things borrowed and gifts. Ted Stevens' tax evasion was colored with the same scheme.

Democracy Now this morning:

THat is all well and good and I don't doubt that it is non-partisan BUT 99.99999999% of tax cheats are not being confirmed to a President's Cabinet. Up to now, problems with a "nanny" was a deal breaker but this is taking "mistakes" to a whole new level.

 

[jj]

Yeah, um... no. If your taxes are complicated enough that you can't be certain of how to correctly handle them, hire someone.

Emphasis mine.

I see you just had to personalize it.

So, now you've made a claim about my taxes. You prepared to prove it?

 

[BPSCG]

Let's hope there is a change.

PS: Wasn't it Biden saying something about it being Patriotic to pay one's taxes?

Yes.

Noting that wealthier Americans would indeed pay more, Biden said: "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."

So if paying taxes is patriotic, is evading taxes... treasonous?

How dare Biden question Daschle's patriotism?

I see here that Washington DC's former mayor-for-life, Marion Barry (D), has once again failed to file a tax return. The last time he failed to file his return, he was already on probation for not filing previous returns.

Barry's current trouble stems from a guilty plea in 2005 to two misdemeanor tax charges. He admitted not filing federal or D.C. tax returns from 1999 through 2004 and said that he did not pay most of the taxes he owed on more than $500,000 in income. U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson sentenced him to three years of probation in March 2006.

In less than a year, federal prosecutors returned to court and asked Robinson to revoke Barry's probation and send him to jail because he had failed to file 2005 returns. Prosecutors said at the time that the judge should send Barry to jail to make "clear to this defendant that he is not above the law."

Barry eventually filed the required forms, and Robinson allowed him to remain on probation because, she said, she did not think the prosecutor proved that Barry had "intentionally" and "willfully" failed to file the returns.

So, this being the second time he's violated the terms of his probation, he's going to jail for sure this time, right?

Not so fast.

In light of Robinson's previous ruling and the fact that Barry filed his 2006 returns, prosecutors might be reluctant to seek sanctions again, legal experts said.

"I don't think they will have any more luck proving their case this time around," said Steven Levin, a criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor in Baltimore who focused on white-collar offenses.

The rules are different in Washington.

 

[Puppycow]

The tax fudging here sucks but waaaaaaaay worse is Obama wanting this insurance industry lobbyist in charge of health care reform.

This is a huge disappointment. As is the news media's thinking the tax issue is the headliner.

From my link in the next post:

This may be nitpicking, but:
Tom Daschle, "Not Technically a Lobbyist"^TM

 

[Ziggurat]

Emphasis mine.

I see you just had to personalize it.

Oh, please. I was using a generic, hypothetical "you". That's a common rhetorical trope. I could give a rat's *** about your (as in you, jj) taxes.

So, now you've made a claim about my taxes. You prepared to prove it?

No, actually, I didn't. Even if one were to read that "you" as being specific (which it wasn't), the only claim is that you should take a certain course of action if certain conditions apply. There was no claim about whether or not those conditions apply. You may disagree about that advice, but to think that it contains any claim about your taxes is a monumental failure of reading comprehension.

 

[SteveGrenard]

Killefer makes three .....

In a two-paragraph resignation letter, (Nancy)Killefer indicated that controversy over failure to pay taxes by two other high-profile nominees of Obama's had convinced her to decline the new president's request to join his administration. Killefer had a tax lien placed on her house by the D.C. government in 2005 because she had not paid unemployment taxes for her household help. She resolved the problem five months after the lien was filed, but the Associated Press wrote about it shortly after Killefer was nominated in early January.
Obama nominated Killefer to be deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget and to take on a new White House post, chief performance officer for the entire federal government. Both positions require Senate confirmation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/02/03/ST2009020301282.html

With Thomas A. Daschle and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner – this makes the third senior official with tax problems to be nominated. Is there a message here? Like the best way out of your economic problems is to do likewise? I wonder where this will stop and how many others in government that rely on our taxes to pay for their work are also a little (or a lot) short on paying up themselves.

 

[marksman]

I think Obama is appointing tax cheats to force them to pay up. Then in a month he drops them from the Cabinet and appoints more tax cheats who have to pay upi in order to get appointed. In a few years, Obama will have appointed every tax cheat in the country to the cabinet and with all the new revenue, we'll be able to afford universal health care!

 

[BPSCG]

Next week Obama announces his bold new plan for tax simplification.

 

[SteveGrenard]

I think Obama is appointing tax cheats to force them to pay up. Then in a month he drops them from the Cabinet and appoints more tax cheats who have to pay upi in order to get appointed. In a few years, Obama will have appointed every tax cheat in the country to the cabinet and with all the new revenue, we'll be able to afford universal health care!

At last somebody understands Obama's bold new health plan.....