Obama’s Judgement: Treasury Pick “Forgot” To Pay His Taxes & Kept Money Given As Reimbursements For Money He Never Paid

Check out Mike’s post on the double standard in the MSM towards this latest “mistake” on Obama’s part

For all the hoopla of the Obama inauguration his transition to power has been one of complete and utter folly. The latest? His pick for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner. You may recall that pick of Obama’s met with a lot of praise. Now, not so much:

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.

And when exactly did he finally pay those taxes? After Obama named him treasury secretary, and after the vetting team found the little itty bitty oversight on Geithner part. Just a tiny mistake you see.

Bulls&%t.

If any one of us had not paid our taxes for years we would be in a TON of trouble. Tax fraud is no joke, but to those associated with Obama it appears it is. Laugh it off, go pay those taxes and then all is right in the world.

It gets better. According to an article by Politico’s Craig Gordon and Amie Parnes Geithner included some payments to his kid’s overnight camps in calculating his dependent child care credit for three years. 2001, 2004, and 2005. His accountant told him in 2006 that this was not allowed and Geithner ignored his accountant. He never amended the returns.

Judicial Watch:

Besides failing to pay the U.S. government $34,000 in taxes, Obama’s pick to run the agency that ensures the nation’s financial security kept money earmarked as restitution for taxes he didn’t pay.

At the time Geithner, considered to be a brilliant financial markets specialist, worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which oversees the global financial system. For years (from 2001 to 2004) Geithner didn’t pay Social Security or Medicare taxes on his lucrative salary yet he gladly cashed the IMF’s tax restitution checks.

The IMF gives employees an extra allowance, known as gross-up, to cover tax payments. To get it employees must file a detailed tax allowance request and the organization then follows up with a check to cover the amount.

Geithner filed and signed the requests for years but didn’t follow through with his obligation. The forms clearly commit the employee to pay the taxes for which he or she is receiving a tax allowance payment from the IMF. For years Geithner accepted the allowance yet blew off the Internal Revenue Service as well as the commitment he had made by signing the official form.

Hey, you keep money given as reimbursements for money you never paid, that’s a-ok in Obama’s book.

Roger Simon on the absolute brilliant judgment Obama has:

…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.

Kept it a secret. Sounds like something the left has been complaining about on bushitler’s part doesn’t it?

The Geithner foul-up is different than the Bill Richardson foul-up. The Obama vetters were unable to get Richardson to give them all 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.

Amazing how forgiving the MSM, the left and the Democrats can be when one of their own sweeps things under the rug. Hides information. Appoints people that should not be appointed.

They say he made a mistake. I don’t buy it. He was given ample notice over and over about those taxes. He was even told he couldn’t claim things that he did claim and never fixed it.

But say it is all a big mistake.

Is that the type of person you want to run Treasury?

Obama does.