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Geithner Never Paid SS Taxes at IMF

By: Brian Darling (Diary)  |  January 14th, 2009 at 12:08 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Secretary of the Treasury Nominee Tim Geithner should be asked if he believes that private retirement accounts should replace Social Security taxes, because he didn’t pay any SS taxes when at the International Monetary Fund.  The Senate Finance Committee has moved the Geithner confirmation hearing from this Friday to next Wednesday, January 21 at 10 a.m. presumably to deal with this growing controversy.

According to a document posted on the Senate Finance Committee website:

The most significant tax concern is identified as Mr. Geithner’s failure to pay Social Security taxes during his entire tenure at the IMF, which began in 2001 and concluded in 2003 (some compensation was not paid until calendar year 2004). He paid no FICA taxes or self-employement taxes with respect to the IMF income during that time.

One would think that this is a “serious obstacle” to confirmation, yet Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) has shrugged off the errors as “honest mistakes.”  At a minimum, this controversy should jump start a debate on tax simplification.

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COMMENTS

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  • Brian Darling

    The Department of the Treasury has jurisdiction over the IRS. The defenders of Geithner are out in force today marketing an “honest and simple mistake” talking point today. Get used to hearing those words.

    • zuiko

      It’s funny how these always seem to work in favor of the tax cheat rather than the other way around. People seem to be a lot more “careful” when it comes to writing a $35k check to the IRS than they are when it comes to not writing the same check.

      I don’t see how this guy is not dead in the water. A tax cheat at Treasury? Are they serious? Why haven’t they thrown this guy under the bus already? Is it really that hard to find a Democrat with the skeletons deep enough in his closet they don’t come out for at least a few months?

      • itdiehard
  • Steve W

    If I don’t pay tax on all of my income – that could be an oversight, or it could be that I thought I’d get away with it and so I didn’t report it all. If I get caught – shame on me – I get to pay the penalties along with the tax. (I’m all for ‘sticking it to the man’ and letting him show me that I underpaid – they steal enough as it is). If he just ‘misplaced’ a thousand here or there, it’s understandable – accountants do it sometimes.

    If I don’t pay ANY taxes – that’s not an oversight – that’s an intentional attempt to get out of my responsibility of paying because I believe that I won’t get caught AND (fill in your rationalization of choice). That’s not a matter of, “Oh my, I should have known better.” I’m sure that if he was self-employed, Geithner didn’t fill out all those tax forms himself anyway – so, we must assume that his accountant definitely DID know better.

    In either case – if he’s on the WE NEED BIG GOVERNMENT – we NEED ALL THE TAXES WE CAN GET – then he’s (at best) a hypocrite, and ethically bankrupt – but, I’d argue that his implementation was competent (well, except he got caught).

    • Jaded

      HE is a CHEAT…..he certainly signed his paperwork each year to be reimbursed by the IMF for those “taxes” that he promised he paid WHEN HE SIGNED!

      http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Yzg2NzliNjFlNDE5YzFmMDhlNGJmYWQ5NjgyMDcxZDE=

      • Steve W

        If I don?t pay ANY taxes – that?s not an oversight – that?s an intentional attempt to get out of my responsibility of paying because I believe that I won?t get caught AND (fill in your rationalization of choice).

        I meant (in many, many more words) that Geithner is a CHEAT.

        Thanks for the more succinct way of saying it (and giving me the chance to say it again – /grin.

        • Jaded

          and we signed those documents saying we paid those taxes WE would be in jail for at leat 10 years with excessive fines etc! It is incredibly WRONG and I am praying one of those Republicans who is going to question him brings up the SIGNED documents!

          • mbecker908

            But he should be charged full interest and penalties and he shouldn’t be Treasury Sec.

          • Steve W

            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.?

            Emphasis mine

            Didn’t someone say that if you’re going to lie, to lie BIG. If you’re going to lie big, then also lie OFTEN – it’s the only way you’ll be believed? Well, here’s the first of the Obama cabinet of liars.

            Not only is he a lying, cheat – but from what I can see he’s not too competent to be holding down this position either.

          • Jaded

            …

  • 10ksnooker

    What if Bush had done it?

    Or how long would a Bush appointee survive this?

  • Marcus_Traianus

    “… the graceful thing, and he stepped down,” Sen. Joe Biden, a Delaware Democrat, said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “And so I am not going to add to the speculation as to whether there may have been other things. The nanny thing was enough all by itself.”

    You ask who are they talking about? Bernie Kerik.

    It seems to me Kerik has many of the same problems and was flayed by Democrats, repeatedly. Yet we stand for these excuses in the interest of…what?

    Once again there is a double standard at work, yet we should “all get along in the interest of the country” now? I don’t think so when Democrats have in the past termed this “disqualifying behavior”.

    Where are our leaders speaking our on this? Oh, almost forgot, McConnell is a behind the scenes guy and Boehner…is he still in DC?

    • johnt

      at it’s best. The talk on one hand, the walk on another, the insanity in between. Rest assured the left really would be furious were this a Republican appointment, not an act but actual anger. Change parties and it’s not worth a deep sigh, such typical contradiction must be, has to be, the spillage of disordered minds.

      Speaking of which, so far the Big Bam seems to be eminently untroubled by this. But then he was untroubled by Bill Ayers who did more than dodge taxes.

      So far I think I’ve heard “honest mistake” about thirty times from the media, our adversary, watchdog press. Barf !

    • Brian Darling

      That Joe Biden quote is gold.

  • Achance

    Might not have paid them on time, it’s a hard thing to do with small SPs, but Joe and every other tradesman or entrepreneur in America knows he has to pay taxes and SS. It is an outright, bald-faced lie that this scumbag didn’t pay taxes on that income because of an oversight or a “hiccup.” LYING LIARS!

  • zuiko

    Despite the disclosures, several committee Republicans appeared to be leaning toward backing Geithner. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah called the tax problems “a mistake that a human being can make.”

    “I’m confident in the man’s ability. I think he’s a very fine man. I’m not one that holds mistakes against people,” Hatch said.

    Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who said he spoke with Geithner for about a half-hour Wednesday morning, said he didn’t foresee trouble for the nominee.

    “I don’t think I see enough in there to cause a problem,” Ensign said. “It’s very, very easy to make honest mistakes.”

    Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said he’d probably vote to confirm Geithner.

    “I think he’s a good man. I had a long visit with him,” Roberts said. “I think he really knows his stuff.”

    How is it a mistake if you have to lie on your tax forms to fall into it? And if the guy really didn’t know any better, how is he qualified to run Treasury? A guy who can’t even prepare his own income tax return?

    • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

      Proof positive that anyone who is in DC for more than eight years has become an evil undead democrat.

      • Praveen

        …..advocating the “honest” mistake. What a Disgrace?

        This is the same guy who got John McCain to back TARP.

        • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

          Light Loafers Graham would be an Obama butt kisser.

          What did we do as a people that was so bad that we deserve senators like that!

          • Praveen

            Whatever happened to party and principles…. these are the people GOP needs to get rid of .

        • Steve W

          .

    • http://politicalcastaway.com hythloday

      What happened to the much-celebrated vetting process that the President-Elect and his transition team were reputed to be employing?

      • 6eorge Jetson

      • 6eorge Jetson

        Obama defends his appointees

  • bk

    The Democratic excuse is that he’s too stupid to do his taxes correctly and we shouldn’t hold that against him.

    The Republican excuse is that anybody else Obama would name instead would probably be even worse.

    So he’ll receive near unanimous confirmation. Is this a great country or what?

    • Jaded

      WE need to LOCK THEM BACK UP!

      • izoneguy

        Obama reminds me of an orderly from that film.
        Nurse Ratchet is Pelosi and Harry Reid is the crazy naked guy.
        America is Jack Nicholson

  • Bob Maistros

    I love Orrin Hatch, for whom I worked back in the 1980s, and who is simply an irrepressibly nice man.

    But putting that aside, let’s clear up this “honest mistake” thing once and for all. I’ve known people who have worked for the IMF as well as people who have lived and worked overseas. If they are ignorant of the tax ramifications of their conditions of employment, it is because they are willfully so.

    Believe me, Geithner had plenty of advice on his tax status, and if he didn’t, he knew where to get it.

    And no nominee to date who had a nanny tax issue — even in the Clinton Administration — has gotten away with it and been nominated.

    When it comes to the guy who will be overseeing the Internal Revenue Service, ignorance of the tax laws — willful or ortherwise — is a disqualification for employment. Period.

  • Robert A. Hahn

    What’s this all about? I get my news from Brian Williams on NBC, and he never mentioned this. Are you telling me that the Washington politicians on both sides of the aisle think it’s no big deal that a nominee for Treasury Secretary didn’t pay his taxes? And that a major news network didn’t even think it was worth telling the public about?

    Why should ordinary citizens pay taxes if the politicians aren’t going to pay theirs? They don’t think this is a big deal? They don’t think telling the public that not paying your taxes is ok?

    • Steve W

      …

  • buckeye

    Either he’s ignorant of self-employment tax, he’s a liar who was attempting to get away with it or he simply can’t ensure the people handling money for him are competent. Whichever, he’s not qualified to run a company treasury much less the country’s treasury.

    • Jaded

      to the IMF that he paid those taxes and in turn they gave him the dollar amount he “supposedly” paid…..this is ILLEGAL! He KNEW about and the signed documents for each one of those tax years is PROOF…..he should be arrested NOT sitting in a seat in DC.

      I posted this upthread but here it is again..

      http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Yzg2NzliNjFlNDE5YzFmMDhlNGJmYWQ5NjgyMDcxZDE=

      • zuiko

        He would have had to do some obvious cheating on his taxes (such as classifying this earned income as investment income) to avoid paying this tax. It’s one of the more stupid ways to cheat on your taxes… so even if being a clever tax cheat is a qualification for Treasury, he still wouldn’t make the cut.

  • jonnot

    Here’s our own Orrin Hatch (R-UT) weighing in on the subject. Remember, he also said that he thinks Eric Holder is a “…fine man” who should be confirmed as Attorney General. With republican jerks like these, who needs the democrats? Please note the quotes below:

    “Despite the disclosures, several committee Republicans appeared to be leaning toward backing Geithner. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah called the tax problems ‘a mistake that a human being can make.’

    ‘I’m confident in the man’s ability. I think he’s a very fine man. I’m not one that holds mistakes against people,’ Hatch said.”

    Well, I certainly hope we will remember, and hold these “mistakes” against Hatch when it comes time for re-election

  • zuiko

    He’s got no excuse for acting the way he does, either, considering the redness of the state he represents. I find him to be one of the most obnoxious Republicans in the Senate for just that reason.

  • libocrat

    SLOPPY. No intent, Just. SLOPPY.

    Liberals are so dishonest

  • Vladimir

    Just curious.

  • Jaded

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17463.html