[Sixstrings]

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama's choice to run the Treasury Department and lead the economic rescue effort disclosed to senators Tuesday that he failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004, a last-minute complication in an otherwise smooth path to confirmation.

Timothy Geithner paid most of the past-due taxes days before Obama announced his nomination in November, an Obama transition official said. The unpaid taxes were discovered by Obama's transition team while investigating Geithner's background, the official said.

The transition official requested anonymity because the source was not authorized to discuss Geithner's situation.
Obama reiterated his support Tuesday for Geithner as senators who are considering the appointment quizzed Geithner behind closed doors.

"He's dedicated his career to our country and served with honor, intelligence and distinction," incoming White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "That service should not be tarnished by honest mistakes, which, upon learning of them, he quickly addressed."

Geithner failed to pay self-employment taxes for money he earned while working for the International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2003, the transition official said. In 2006, the IRS notified him that he owed $14,847 in self-employment taxes and $2,383 in penalties from 2003 and 2004.

Link

Now this surprises me. He is President of the New York Fed. His resume is a veritable Illuminati who's who list -- Council on Foreign Relations, International Monetary Fund, etc. He is an economist. And he didn't pay his federal income tax.

[heroineworshipper]

He could be Hans Reiser & it wouldn't matter, the love for Jesus Ubooba is so great.

[keehah]

I thought this was the best part:

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said he still hoped Geithner could be confirmed on Inauguration Day.

"These errors were not intentional; they were honest mistakes," Baucus said after he and other committee members met with Geithner behind closed doors on Tuesday.

Yeah just a mistake. Since when do we need anyone who is accountable running a Treasury eh?

[Plantagenet]

The dems who run Congress don't give a damn if Obama's treasury secretary didn't pay taxes and hired illegal aliens, as long as he'll give them trillions in pork to spend.

[AlexdeLarge]

He could be Hans Reiser & it wouldn't matter, the love for Jesus Ubooba is so great.

Too funny!!!

[JoeW]

Maybe he can sweep the federal deficits under the same rug he's been sweeping his tax bills...
He might need a bigger rug.

[Denny]

Considering the vast debts the U.S. has accrued, the ability to successfully dodge debt payments is a logical criterion for a candidate for post of Secretary of the Treasury.

Suggested email tagline for the Secretary of the Treasury ==> "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a trillion dollars today."

[Sixstrings]

I heard a talking head on TV dismiss the tax evasion, as there is "some confusion" among the US citizens who work for the IMF as to whether they have to pay income tax.

So, perhaps not such a big deal. On the other hand, you'd think an economics guru and Prez of the New York Fed could handle his own freakin' taxes. My hunch is that this is a little loophole some folks slide through, and he knew full well he should report the income but he thought he'd just sneak by.

It's difficult to accept an ignorance defense when it comes from one of the leading economic minds in the nation.

Another interesting tidbit about our new Treasury Sec:

He skateboards and snowboards and exudes a sort of hipster-wonkiness, using “way” as a synonym for “very” as in “way consequential” and occasionally underlining his point with the word “f*ck”.

Link

Way interesting, dude. A skateboarding, snowboarding, tax-sneaking Boy Wonder holding the reigns of power.

[Fishman]

Ah the smell of Carter leadership and Clinton corruption, it's nightmare in America.

[IgnoranceIsBliss]

I voted for Obama, but this has a rotten stench to it.

I think this nominee needs to be tossed out on his a** and get on with finding someone better.

Not intentional? Give me a break!

[Plantagenet]

I voted for Obama, but this has a rotten stench to it.

I think this nominee needs to be tossed out on his a** and get on with finding someone better.

Not intentional? Give me a break!

+1

Time to face facts. The financial whiz Obama selected to sit next to him in his cabinet meetings and advise him on the economy as head of the treasury department is actually a scumbag tax cheat.

[Sixstrings]

Time to face facts. The financial whiz Obama selected to sit next to him in his cabinet meetings and advise him on the economy as head of the treasury department is actually a scumbag tax cheat.

The irony here is that even if he isn't confirmed as Treas Sec, he's already a major mover and shaker. He's President of the New York Fed, and has been in on all the big decisions since this crisis began.

That's partly why Obama selected him, to provide some continuity.

[Plantagenet]

Time to face facts. The financial whiz Obama selected to sit next to him in his cabinet meetings and advise him on the economy as head of the treasury department is actually a scumbag tax cheat.

The irony here is that even if he isn't confirmed as Treas Sec, he's already a major mover and shaker. He's President of the New York Fed, and has been in on all the big decisions since this crisis began.

That's partly why Obama selected him, to provide some continuity.

Great. Just what we need. A tax cheat providing "continuity" through a financial crisis.

What happened to Obama's promises about "change?"....more often then not now it seems like he should've campaigned on a promise of "continuity."

[billg]

What a friggin joke! Obama lobbies for a tax dodger to be the head of the IRS.

Geithner's failure to pay taxes just an 'honest mistake'?

January 17, 2009
BY ROGER SIMON

Would it be OK if I stopped paying my taxes until Barack Obama names me to be his secretary of the Treasury?

That is a deal I would like to get. That is the deal financial wizard Timothy Geithner got.

He didn't pay all of his federal taxes for years. Then, after Obama decided to name him Treasury secretary, the president-elect's vetting team discovered Geithner's little oversight.

Not paying your taxes is considered serious for some people. But not for Geithner, a Wall Street "wonder boy" -- he is 47 -- who is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and was instrumental in putting together the recent Wall Street bailout package.

You would think a guy like this would know about paying taxes, but no. Mistakes were made.

Geithner failed to pay the proper self-employment taxes for 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, even though he was sent documents telling him he had to do so.

But in 2006, Geithner got a document he couldn't ignore. The Internal Revenue Service sent Geithner a notice saying he had not paid his taxes for 2003 and 2004, and Geithner paid up.

But he did not pay up for 2001 and 2002, even though he must have known that he skipped taxes for those years, too.

He didn't pay those taxes until Obama decided he wanted Geithner to head the Treasury and sent vetters to look into Geithner's past.

The vetters discovered Geithner's little tax error in November and told Geithner. Then Geithner paid up, with interest. The vetters also told Obama, of course.

According to an article by Politico's Craig Gordon and Amie Parnes, Obama "decided to push ahead with the nomination anyway because he 'still wanted him.'"

At the end of the day, a source said, "Barack decided that he was the best person for a really important job."

OK, I get it.

The economy is teetering on the brink, and we need to cut corners a little. We can't be all that scrupulous and nitpicky when the future of the nation is at stake.

So in November, Team Obama announced that Geithner had this little problem and was paying his back taxes with interest and that it was all an honest mistake and no big deal, right?

Wrong. They decided to keep it a secret. But the Wall Street Journal discovered it and blew the whistle Tuesday.

The Senate Finance Committee has been looking into Geithner -- it has to vote on his appointment -- and discovered something else.

According to Gordon and Parnes: "In addition, Geithner included payments to overnight camps in calculating his dependent child care credit in 2001, 2004 and 2005.

His accountant informed him in 2006 that the camps were not allowable expenses. The committee notes that Geithner did not file amended returns to fix the mistake."

Can I get this deal? Can I ignore my accountant? He is always telling me that my trips to Vegas are not allowable under "necessary mental health expenses," and fool that I am, I keep listening to him.

The Geithner foul-up is different from the Bill Richardson foul-up. The Obama vetters were unable to get Richardson to give them all of the background information they needed, but Obama went ahead and appointed Richardson to the Cabinet anyway. Then that blew up, and Richardson withdrew his name.

With Geithner, the vetters found the bad stuff -- yay! -- but everybody thought they could sweep it under the rug. Boo.

Now Republicans are forcing a delay on the Geithner hearing until after Obama is inaugurated.

Team Obama says Geithner made "honest mistakes."

OK. I'll buy that. But as secretary of the Treasury, Geithner would be in charge of the Internal Revenue Service. And we will see how easy he is on other people when they say they made "honest mistakes."

[Sixstrings]

Supposedly, it's an "honest mistake" because his accountant and / or lawyer advised him he didn't have to pay taxes working while for the IMF.

I don't buy the excuse. This was an old line in the Bush Administration -- just find a lawyer who'll say what you're doing is legal and voila, you have cover. When did ignorance of the law become a valid defense?

This is getting pretty old. What we have in our government are experts in law and economcis who look to other experts to support their illegal actions -- actions they should know are illegal based upon their own expertise, no outside consultation necessary.

[Plantagenet]

Supposedly, it's an "honest mistake" because his accountant and / or lawyer advised him he didn't have to pay taxes working while for the IMF.

I don't buy the excuse.

Geitherner is lying. The IMF actually paid its employees extra money OVER AND ABOVE their salary specifically to cover their US taxes. Every IMF employee had to sign a special form to get the extra money, promising to pay their taxes. Geithner is lying when he says he didn't know about the taxes.

Geithner not only didn't pay the taxes....he lied on the form AND he kept the extra money given him specifically to pay the taxes. Nonetheless, Obama is backing this sleazy guy for treasury.

[pablonite]

Now this surprises me. He is President of the New York Fed. His resume is a veritable Illuminati who's who list -- Council on Foreign Relations, International Monetary Fund, etc. He is an economist. And he didn't pay his federal income tax.

Are you really suprised?

You mention Illuminati, CFR, IMF but are "suprised" to find one of "them" abusing a position of power?

Still dealing with a bit of cognitive dissonance maybe.

[GoghGoner]

He was probably doing it in the interest of the United States of America -- he is true patriot! In case you didn't know paying less taxes actually results in more tax revenue later -- it's called the Laffer curve. God bless the USA!

[Plantagenet]

Formerly, a person who was a tax cheat or who hired undocumented aliens as a nanny or who signed fraudulent documents or otherwise showed themselves to be a fraudster would be disqualified from running the US Treasury Dept. The Senate wouldn't confirm such a person.

Now, thanks to Obama, its perfectly OK for a person who cheats on their taxes (Geithner is lying about not knowing about the taxes --- he signed documents promising to pay in exchange for being given extra money by the IMF specifically for the taxes) to rise to a very high public office, and actually be in charge of the US Treasury.

Now that is a real change from the past.

[cbxer55]

Geithner obfuscated.. Read it for yourself, it is short but sweet. Do we really want him in control of the IRS?????

Link and Another LINK