Perhaps I was too easy on Geithner

According to the WSJ, President-elect Obama's Treasury nominee Timothy Geithner made "mistakes" on his taxes for several years. I had initially read that he simply didn't pay his FICA taxes, because his employment with the IMF was as a 1099 employee. Ok.

I said it was stupid, especially since it went on for several years. I expected TurboTax, etc. or his accountant to do a better job than that and to have caught the error in the first year.

Now it seems that this was not his only "mistake". The WSJ says

Other tax issues also surfaced during the vetting, including the fact Mr. Geithner used his child's time at overnight camps in 2001, 2004 and 2005 to calculate dependent-care tax deductions. Sleepaway camps don't qualify.

Amended tax returns that Mr. Geithner filed recently include $4,334 in additional taxes, and $1,232 in interest for infractions, such as an early-withdrawal penalty from a retirement plan, an improper small-business deduction, a charitable-contribution deduction for ineligible items, and the expensing of utility costs that went for personal use.

I love the WSJ's remarks: "We're tempted to say America needs a Treasury secretary who is smart enough to figure out his own taxes. But such a cheap shot would be beneath us. Instead, we are going to make a serious point: America needs a tax code simple enough for the Treasury secretary to figure out." Pretty much what I said yesterday.