Geithner again: now I'm pissed

In fairness, I must note that the man was once-upon-a-time a Republican, who re-registered as an independent some time ago; he later served in varying roles in Treasury in the Clinton administration. So my "Dems:..." post below, while still "truish", might not be factual--I have no idea whether he now considers himself a Democrat.

More information keeps coming out. Again, not a national tragedy, but it does fall under the "do as I say not as I do" flag and presents a conflict of interest question if nothing else. I've got a few postings below that explain some of the problem (that Obama's appointment for Treasury--who would be in charge of the IRS--didn't pay some of his taxes in 2001,02,03,and 04).

Documents released by the Senate Finance Committee strongly suggest that Geithner knew, or should have known, what he was doing when he did not pay self-employment taxes in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. After his failure to pay was discovered, first by the IRS and later during the vetting process, Geithner paid the federal government a total of $42,702 in taxes and interest.

The IMF did not withhold state and federal income taxes or self-employment taxes — Social Security and Medicare — from its employees’ paychecks. But the IMF took great care to explain to those employees, in detail and frequently, what their tax responsibilities were. First, each employee was given the IMF Employee Tax Manual. Then, employees were given quarterly wage statements for the specific purpose of calculating taxes. Then, they were given year-end wage statements. And then, each IMF employee was required to file what was known as an Annual Tax Allowance Request. Geithner received all those documents.

The tax allowance has turned out to be a key part of the Geithner situation. This is how it worked. IMF employees were expected to pay their taxes out of their own money. But the IMF then gave them an extra allowance, known as a “gross-up,” to cover those tax payments. This was done in the Annual Tax Allowance Request, in which the employee filled out some basic information — marital status, dependent children, etc. — and the IMF then estimated the amount of taxes the employee would owe and gave the employee a corresponding allowance.

At the end of the tax allowance form were the words, “I hereby certify that all the information contained herein is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and that I will pay the taxes for which I have received tax allowance payments from the Fund.” Geithner signed the form. He accepted the allowance payment. He didn’t pay the tax. For several years in a row.

So now it seems that he was meaningfully informed by his employer about his tax responsibilities, quarterly even! And yet this "mistake" continued for four years. Combined with some of the other ways he cheated on his taxes, I'm not sure he's someone who should be running the IRS.

On the other hand, what did I expect from a politician?