Timothy Geithner, the man tapped to lead the nation out of the greatest economic crisis in decades —- and who would oversee the Internal Revenue Service —- trekked to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to explain to senators how he made $42,702 worth of mistakes on his own tax returns.
As treasury secretary, Geithner’s job would be directing a mammoth rescue of the nation’s economy. President-elect Barack Obama selected him for the post late last year, citing his “unparalleled understanding of our current economic crisis, in all of its depth, complexity and urgency.”
Now, to be fair, it does seem to have been a minor snafu and not some sort of intentional tax evasion. He thought his employer was withholding FICA. But they were not, because they (the IMF) hires so many foreigners they do not automatically do that and require employees who must pay those taxes to manage their own affairs. He has apparently already paid the back taxes, penalties and interest.
On the other hand, if he plugs the numbers into TaxCut or TurboTax he'd find that they didn't come out right and should have known right away (i.e. in the first year) and should not have gone on for more than 3 years. If he had tax accountant, that's even worse.
What it does highlight is the absurd complexity of our tax code.
No comments:
Post a Comment