AMERICAblog: Geithner's Tax Error A Common One, Expert Says
rasscot
· 10 months ago
this is bullshit. I am self-employed and I am smart enough to hire tax preparer. This guy is going to be in charge of the US Treasury.
pdxprobert
· 10 months ago
Same here... total bullshit....
CDS2
· 10 months ago
It's the timing that's not so common.
mmedefarge
· 10 months ago
one set of rules for them, one set for the rest of us........My poor brother who drives a taxi is smart enough to withhold his taxes quarterly. And he would probably be in trouble if he didn't. This slick dude is only paying because he got caught. The very fact that he asked some accountant to look over his records indicates to me that he knew something was not kosher.
dcredhead
· 10 months ago
I think you're right on.
grandma
· 10 months ago
From Ambinder on the housekeeper:
As for the housekeeper: she had an Employee Authorization Document at the time of her employment. Her authorization expired a few months before she stopped working for the Geithners. She was NOT an illegal immigrant; she was a legal U.S. resident, married to a U.S. citizen, and was later given her green card.
John, you made a glaring assumption--do you think all housekeepers are Latinas? The woman could have come from anywhere.
Meanwhile, I've known for many years that self-employed people had to deposit quarterly taxes. But then, I had experience in accounting. Maybe an accountant should be Treasury Secretary instead of an economist, eh? At least an accountant could keep track of where the money goes...
John Aravosis
· 10 months ago
It's not a glaring assumption in Washington, DC. At all. Though in Chicago, cleaning ladies are of a different ethnicity. But since we're bordering on PC, I won't share what ethnicity that is. :-)
KarenMrsLloydRichards
· 10 months ago
Geither is objectionable for other reasons than these two minor pecadillos.
Namely, enabling the financial services "industry" in creating a $55 TRILLION pyramid of junk, allowing firms to leverage themselves 36:1.
mmedefarge
· 10 months ago
gee--sounds like Bernie Madoff. I think that all of the hedge funds and big brokerages are going to be revealed as running similar Ponzi-like schemes. And that will be when the bottom REALLY falls out. All these gazillions of bucks to prop them up will have been to no avail. But guess what--those guys will just be sitting pretty "under house arrest" in their luxurious digs. They will never suffer a whit for what they have done.
Older_Wiser
· 10 months ago
That's exactly my objection to him as well. He was instrumental in working with Paulson to prop up AIG, which is loaded with credit default swaps, many of which are only worth 10% of their paper value. When the bottom falls out of the CDS schemes, there will be no end in sight for a worldwide depression.
mamazboy
· 10 months ago
Great point, KMLR! These discussions of smaller-potatoes issues are important but not nearly as much as who Geithner really is and why he doesn't deserve the post. Clogging up the airwaves with his taxes and cleaning woman problem assures that we won't be digging into the real problems with this guy. I'm really starting to question Obama's choices.
dcredhead
· 10 months ago
I disagree. Failing to pay taxes for a worker -- when your background is taxes and finance -- is a big no no. Yes, I care. Sorry, but I do. We made a HUGE deal about it with one of Bush's GOP appointees. I can't believe Giethner, with his finance background, could make sure a foolish error.
CPL
· 10 months ago
ITA. When Clinton's nominees for Attorney General got tossed because of tax issues involving their nannies after Orrin Hatch whined about it, Hatch stated if these women couldn't be trusted to obey the laws requiring taxing their domestic help, how the hell could they be entrusted to enforce the laws of the land?
I don't like Orrin Hatch, and I sure as hell hate agreeing with him, but he has a point regarding those AG nominees of Clinton's just like the ReThugs will have concerning Geithner. People at the Fed got removed for lesser offenses, such as claiming too much for dinner during travel when it was legally allowed.
If he can't keep up with his taxes, he can't run the Treasury. Simple as that, and Obama needs to find himself another nominee, because the ReThugs will be all over Geithner's ass about this incident of breaking the law.
In all honestly, the Geithner pick made me sick because he was coming from the one Agency that has NO CONGRESSIONAL oversight, and he helped author that Banking Bailout mess as well. Why put the Fox in charge of watching the henhouse when you know what that bastard will do?
davidkc
· 10 months ago
I'm appaled that someone in Geithner's position would make this mistake. I'm suddenly not feeling so good about the people Obama wants to charge with fixing our economy.
Pissed off in Carolina
· 10 months ago
Are you frigging kidding me? I am self employed and way down the income level but you can bet your ass I pay both sides. Let's face it people, we have been had, yet again. Next comes pardons for all the Bushies, you know, so we can just move on. We voted for change but all we are getting is screwed. Have a smoke!
Lib4Life
· 10 months ago
Another day, another crook.
Jim
· 10 months ago
Um. . .when I was self-employed, I paid the tax. Its the Schedule SE and Schedule C. It sucked big time, but I did it. That said, its kinda funny that the guy who's going to run the Treasury doesn't understand IRS forms. There's hope for all of us.
AdmNaismith
· 10 months ago
If you can;t keep track of your own money, what makes him qualified to keep track of EVERYBODY'S money? What's his degree in, Art History?
Droo
· 10 months ago
These housekeepers wouldn't be a big deal if people like Geithner cleaned their own damn house. Too good to clean a toilet? Too rich? And it's come back to bite him? My heart does not bleed.
What others have said re: his taxes. I knew to pay them when I was self-employed, and he should have as well. I don't particularly think it should scuttle his nomination, but really. It's an embarrassment.
Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel
· 10 months ago
Maybe not too "good" or too "rich" but too busy. Virtually all of the people I know in high-level jobs here in Washington hire cleaning help, and as John says, I have not met one cleaning person, male or female, who isn't Latino. (The men are more likely found working nights in office buildings.)
As Ambinder discovered (see link below), the woman is legal, married to a citizen, and her status expired a few months before she stopped working for the Geithners. She may not have told them. Granted, an embarrassment, but possibly not his fault, and so, so common here in D.C.
mamazboy
· 10 months ago
I'm afraid I'm with Droo on this one. The "too busy" crowd should clean their own toilets. I hate hearing excuses of "too busy" about the rich people who run everything and have helped wreck our country. Do you think Bush has ever cleaned his toilet? (Which given how full of shit he is, must be overflowing.)
RandyH
· 10 months ago
From what I've heard today, his failure to pay tax was on income earned outside the country when he did some work for the International Monetary Fund. He did not know he needed to pay the tax. When he found out that he did, he paid it.
On the housekeeper - When he hired her, she had a legal work visa. She worked for him for some time. Her work visa expired a few months before she left and he never knew that it had expired. This really could happen to anyone.
roy earl
· 10 months ago
correct on the imf but truck drivers(no disrespect at all) know damn well they have to pay payroll taxes. This creep has got advanced degrees, and has worked in the financial industry all his life---he KNOWS damn well payroll taxes are an absolute!!! His denial is just not credible!! It's really like saying i didnt know i had to stop at a STOP sign!
MNUSA
· 10 months ago
For the life of me I don't understand why people can't get their taxes straight, especially people who are being considered to oversee the IRS.
Anonymous Coward
· 10 months ago
One of the problems that tax preparers have is that Self Employed people don't get a W-2 from the source of their income. The W-2 is for employees / not self-employed. The tax preparation software packages make it very hard to put the 'salary from international organizations that don't pay taxes on salary to their employees' into the tax forms. Religious workers are included in the tax prompt to capture the self-employment taxes due from employees of 'exempt' firms.
I expect Geither had an accountant prepare his taxes and the accountant missed the SE adjustment.
AnonymousCoward
· 10 months ago
There is no Schedule C for the salary from the IMF. The guy was an employee. His accountant probably screwed up.
roy earl
· 10 months ago
he said he used turbo tax not an accountant not to mention he signed a form promising to pay the payroll taxes which was right above his signature!!!!!!!
Emily
· 10 months ago
My husband was a gardener at a big university and he worked on the weekends, running his own tree business. We knew he had to pay the self-employment taxes and pay them we did. But then we did our own taxes, not an accountant. That's probably why Gethner made the mistake and we didn't.
That said, I'm not saying Gethner should be disqualified. I am undecided.
mamazboy
· 10 months ago
The tax thing is what bugs me about this guy. Do we HAVE to have an "economic expert" who doesn't have the sense/knowledge/ethics to pay his fucking taxes? Please.
roy earl
· 10 months ago
"careless mistake"---NOT credible!!--Nothing but fraud, ie, intent to deceive, cheat etc. this guy is highly educated, a banker(or is supposed to be), has spent virtually his entire career in the financial industry and passes this off as a careless mistake year after year AND he also signed a form where the language that he promised to pay the payroll taxes is directly above his signature! I've got a bridge for sale. What a disgrace! And our wonderful govt wonders why we dont trust these all these creeps in DC and why most of us think these politicos are worhtless!
All Comments
Treasury.
As for the housekeeper: she had an Employee Authorization Document at the time of her employment. Her authorization expired a few months before she stopped working for the Geithners. She was NOT an illegal immigrant; she was a legal U.S. resident, married to a U.S. citizen, and was later given her green card.
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/20...
Meanwhile, I've known for many years that self-employed people had to deposit quarterly taxes. But then, I had experience in accounting. Maybe an accountant should be Treasury Secretary instead of an economist, eh? At least an accountant could keep track of where the money goes...
Namely, enabling the financial services "industry" in creating a $55 TRILLION pyramid of junk, allowing firms to leverage themselves 36:1.
I don't like Orrin Hatch, and I sure as hell hate agreeing with him, but he has a point regarding those AG nominees of Clinton's just like the ReThugs will have concerning Geithner. People at the Fed got removed for lesser offenses, such as claiming too much for dinner during travel when it was legally allowed.
If he can't keep up with his taxes, he can't run the Treasury. Simple as that, and Obama needs to find himself another nominee, because the ReThugs will be all over Geithner's ass about this incident of breaking the law.
In all honestly, the Geithner pick made me sick because he was coming from the one Agency that has NO CONGRESSIONAL oversight, and he helped author that Banking Bailout mess as well. Why put the Fox in charge of watching the henhouse when you know what that bastard will do?
What's his degree in, Art History?
What others have said re: his taxes. I knew to pay them when I was self-employed, and he should have as well. I don't particularly think it should scuttle his nomination, but really. It's an embarrassment.
As Ambinder discovered (see link below), the woman is legal, married to a citizen, and her status expired a few months before she stopped working for the Geithners. She may not have told them. Granted, an embarrassment, but possibly not his fault, and so, so common here in D.C.
On the housekeeper - When he hired her, she had a legal work visa. She worked for him for some time. Her work visa expired a few months before she left and he never knew that it had expired. This really could happen to anyone.
I expect Geither had an accountant prepare his taxes and the accountant missed the SE adjustment.
That said, I'm not saying Gethner should be disqualified. I am undecided.