treasury nominee didn't pay taxes, and hired an illegal (salary, marines, African)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
And yet, the Timothy Geithner controversy seems to be fizzling.
It’s not that the usual voices are silent. But faced with a made-to-order personal financial scandal, there’s been only a half-hearted response in the political echo chamber, and the consensus among Washington and media elites seems to be that the economic moment is too serious to be distracted by Geithner’s tax problems
The above is all from the link. Any issues should be directed at Politico.
And that speaks volumes for the change we can believe in. Same old garbage just the President's name will change.
I don't particularly care when, what, why. He was wrong and should be held accountable. Grossed up to cover the taxes and he still did not pay. No excuses, I play by the rule so should our government officials at all levels, Democrat, Republican, whatever.
You have a perspective on taxation and the individual. Many share your position and many don't. Often it deals with the ability to afford an accountant and often it deals with your feeling on taxation and your responsibility to pay the full amount you might owe or to tax the policy to minimize payment. Precedent law is there in matters of taxation and IRS regs get challenged all of the time. Thats why you have Tax Court. United States Tax Court: Home United States Tax Court: Help: Information for Nonattorneys: About the Court
The United States Tax Court is a Federal trial court. Because it is a court of record, a record is made of all its proceedings. It is an independent judicial forum. It is not controlled by or connected with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Congress created the Tax Court as an independent judicial authority for taxpayers disputing certain IRS determinations. The Tax Court's authority to resolve these disputes is called its jurisdiction. Generally, a taxpayer may file a petition in the Tax Court in response to certain IRS determinations. A taxpayer who begins such a proceeding is known as the "petitioner", and the IRS Commissioner is the "respondent".
The Tax Court is in Washington, D.C. Its Judges preside at trials in 60 U.S. cities, and its Special Trial Judges preside at trials in those cities and 15 additional cities
Now this nomination does have a problem that might actually get legs and make it as a legitimate confirmation challenge. GOP-ers may block Solis confirmation - Manu Raju - Politico.com
Senate Republicans, frustrated over the answers they say they're not getting from Rep. Hilda L. Solis, may try to block her confirmation as Barack Obama's secretary of labor.
"She answered no questions," said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "If she won't answer the questions, how can you support the nomination
A very good read on why this issue of Geithner ran out of legs. A lot of this depends on where you live and how familiar you are with the issues behind the topic. What happened with Geithner is neither simplistic or with universal application.
In 2006, the IRS audited Geithner’s 2003 and 2004 returns and charged him accordingly. But Geithner didn’t pay his 2001 and 2002 back taxes until the Obama transition team that vetted him brought the oversight to his attention.
Typically, there’s a three-year statute of limitations on IRS audits, Lloyd said. After that, the years are considered “closed” and the IRS will reject additional payments.
“We’ve had clients come and say they want to make payments for a closed year,” he said. “The IRS sends the money back.”
The real lesson of the Geithner flap, say tax experts: Get a good tax accountant.
“The fact that he tried shows that he might understand taxes better than some others,” Gruen said. “It’s probably been years since a lot of IRS commissioners prepared their own returns
The above is from the link.
Even if he had tried to pay then for the non audited years as you can see the IRS would have probably sent the check back. Now because of the nature of the issue they may keep it or return it so he can donate it to charity. The article also explains why Republicans on the committee backed off after getting additional insight. That insight was offered by Republican members of the committee as reported in the news. This is comparable to other issues including the one about the interest rate Obama got on his home in Chicago. It was entirely in line with bank practices and if you have millions to deposit your status is unique and different. That was another issue that went nowhere as many knew how banks operate. Especially local and regional banks.
Also from Politico why it wouldn't have been picked up in his calculations.
In 2006, the IRS audited Geithner’s 2003 and 2004 returns and charged him accordingly. But Geithner didn’t pay his 2001 and 2002 back taxes until the Obama transition team that vetted him brought the oversight to his attention.
Typically, there’s a three-year statute of limitations on IRS audits, Lloyd said. After that, the years are considered “closed” and the IRS will reject additional payments.
“We’ve had clients come and say they want to make payments for a closed year,” he said. “The IRS sends the money back.”
The real lesson of the Geithner flap, say tax experts: Get a good tax accountant.
“The fact that he tried shows that he might understand taxes better than some others,” Gruen said. “It’s probably been years since a lot of IRS commissioners prepared their own returns
In part, say accountants, that’s because the IMF’s tax process is confusing even for professional accountants. The IMF distributes a W-2 form that leaves empty the box for payroll tax obligations, a fact that likely led Geithner to assume he was free from obligation.
“If he got a W-2, it’s not something that would jump out at you,” said Bryan Camp, a tax professor at the Texas Tech University School of Law.
Bill Gruen, an accountant who handles the filings of several United Nations, World Bank and IMF employees, said Geithner was probably confused by tax software that failed to flag the additional payroll taxes.
“It’s not automatic — even on my $4,000 software — that the program would calculate a self-employment tax,” Gruen said.
The house worker was married to a US citizen and had a green card that expired while she was working for him. I wonder how many of us check the green card of our house cleaner monthly?
According to an article I read in the Denver Post today, Geithner checked the worker's green card when he hired her, which is all he was legally required to do. I can't find the story online to post a link. I used to have a cleaning service that employed a lot of immigrants from Mexico; I never checked their legal status.
According to an article I read in the Denver Post today, Geithner checked the worker's green card when he hired her, which is all he was legally required to do. I can't find the story online to post a link. I used to have a cleaning service that employed a lot of immigrants from Mexico; I never checked their legal status.
He did and the card expired after she was hired. After this happened I asked my wife about a cleaning woman we had for about 25 years if she was legal. My wife said of course she was. Her situation was identical to this womans. I asked my wife did you ever check? Nope neither of us had. We assumed because our church had sponsored her coming here and she was part of a government effort to relocate people from Vietman but we never checked. We actually thought hiring her we were being good Christians. I wonder how many of the other people she worked for checked. Should we have yes. How many of the people who built our new house were illegal? I would be sure some were. Did I bust the builders chops over it? Nope. If the workman for the company that work for me after the house was done were illegal, what then? I know I am one of them terrible lefties, soft on immigration.
I think it's better than this scenario....I mean not that anything is "odd" or funny about this...all perfectly legal...with NO oversight, or rules or laws governing it per Paulson's request
He did and the card expired after she was hired. After this happened I asked my wife about a cleaning woman we had for about 25 years if she was legal. My wife said of course she was. Her situation was identical to this womans. I asked my wife did you ever check? Nope neither of us had. We assumed because our church had sponsored her coming here and she was part of a government effort to relocate people from Vietman but we never checked. We actually thought hiring her we were being good Christians. I wonder how many of the other people she worked for checked. Should we have yes. How many of the people who built our new house were illegal? I would be sure some were. Did I bust the builders chops over it? Nope. If the workman for the company that work for me after the house was done were illegal, what then? I know I am one of them terrible lefties, soft on immigration.
Yeah, me too. When we had our house remodeled, many of the workers could barely speak English. Did we check their status? Again, no. Our contractor hired them. Should we have been more diligent? Of course. That's life.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
