Politicians and Tax Problems

[dude1394]

I've been pretty livid about the cavaliar attitude and the (I'm just speculating here) favorable treatment by the IRS of our recent crop of tax cheats. If you ever mess up your taxes and see how powerless you will feel about it...well...
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/68475/

If these guys are getting caught without paying taxes I would like to know how much in fines and interest they are paying...because that's one of the most onerous parts of the IRS deals. You honestly mess up and there is no debate, you pay fines and interests on a process that no one can easily keep straight.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: “Millions of Americans don’t have either Daschle’s or Geithner’s resources, yet they pay dearly to go to accountants, honestly turn over all their records, and then pay the full amount of taxation in accordance with their understanding of the law, and the advice they receive from professional accountants. Yet men both much richer and much more informed about the U.S. tax code not only don’t do that, but feel no compunction to rectify mistakes unless they cause embarrassment enough to thwart their careers. Two subtexts as well: there must be many more Daschles and Geithners floating around Washington who don’t show up on the radar unless they want a top political appointment; and, two, the old liberal creed that taxes are good and patriotic and are avoided by greedy, selfish conservative elites seems shattered by these examples.”

I agree with this: “Any more of these stories and we will be on very dangerous ground, since the message is a terrible one to the American people: You pay your full amount, but our elites not only do not, but won’t unless they get caught. This is all about as good an argument for a flat tax as one can imagine.”

[92bDad]

I'm still paying off some back taxes that stemmed from my former company NOT holding back enough throughout the year. 2003-2005...3 years in which my company hardly took any taxes out of my paycheck.

As a result, the total tab for those 3 years was nearly $20K...add penalties and interest to it...paying that back is a freakin pain in the arse.

Let me miss a month of payment and watch my accounts get frozen.

Try to contact them to work things out, and you have a ton of red tape to get to anyone...which takes serious time.

I take my own responsibility in that I should have had my old company take more out...but at the time, I was rather naive in regards to finances and taxes...I trusted my company and payroll to not put me in that position.

Now, I've taken a more active roll and it's no longer an issue, although all my current returns are paying the back taxes off.

The funny part...I pay $221 per month to the IRS, but uncle Sam is paying me a Disabled Veterans monthly payment of $117 per month. I offered to differ that money to that tax debt so that I could just budget the rest of my money and let the government collect there own money...but they don't work with other departments...

The effeciency and customer service of our goverment!!!

[Mavdog]

as it relates to daschle, this is an easy item to miss. he was found to not fully report non-monetary income/benefits, in this case it was the use of a car/driver provided by a benefactor.

as one writer put it, we're always focused on where we can get credits/deductions for the tax return, we're not focused on looking for items that were given to us that also have value. you gotta report the items of value as income just like they were giving you money.

the problem with daschle is that he was in the group who wrote these tax codes and he should be aware of every possible angle. he didn't provide to his accountant any info on these perks, so the acct didn't list them as income, he owes the fed the tax plus penalties and interest, and daschle now has to withdraw his nomination.

is this an act that should disqualify a nominee? there's a huge difference between a person going to great lengths to hide real income, to cheat, and someone who just doesn't catch something like a car service given to them.

but he's guilty, he's paying the price, and now going forward no one will get caught not paying income tax for non-monetary items if they want to be a cabinet member.

[alexamenos]

there's one set of rules for the governed and another set for the governors. this is as it has always been and shall always be.