Thursday, January 22, 2009

A Tax Cheat to Run the Treasury Department

So Treasury Secretary Nominee, Timothy Geithner, has passed the Senate Finance Commitee Hearing despite the fact he appears to be a reformed tax cheat.

He apparently has made numerous tax errors, including failure to pay SE Tax for 4 years. His excuses are pitiful and self-serving, the kinds of excuses that would draw heavy critisim from US Tax Court judges (if he used those excuses in that court). However, because he has paid those taxes up with interest he may still be given the job as head of the US Treasury -- the same organization that runs the IRS, and handles the billions of dollars of bailout funds.

This may get interesting, especially in relationship to the IRS. Many people need very little justification to cheat on their income taxes, and now they have one more -- the boss of the IRS did it so why can't I.

Unfortunately, Mr Geithner doesn't stand from a strong moral position as future head of the Department responsible for collecting taxes, and viciously pursuing people who have the made the same "mistakes" that Mr. Geithner has made. His historically "flexible" tax compliance makes him a poor candidate for Sec. Treas., he should be replaced as nominee and he should be offered some sort of finance advisory position.

Oh well..... I guess I have one more hurdle to leap in explaining why you have to be fair and honest in your dealings with the Federal Government. I guess I'll need to focus on not getting incarcerated for tax crimes.

2 comments:

Scott Hinrichs said...

Let's assume that Mr. Geithner's tax mistakes were 100% innocent. This means that: A) Our tax code is so complex that even the next Treasury Secretary can't properly compute his own taxes, B) Our next Treasury Secretary is so incompetent that he can't even properly figure his own taxes, or C) Both A and B.

Even more concerning to me is the fact that most senators in both parties don't see this as a deal breaker and that big business interests are lobbying in Geithner's favor. What does this tell us about the politicians and the big business crowd?

Anonymous said...

Do you really think he sat down and did his own taxes? If I made his income I would be paying an "Expert"! Worst I think he is guilty of is not checking his tax man's math.