We like to think there is an innocent explanation for the many tax… how does one put this delicately… irregularities that seem to plague the various appointments Obama has been throwing at confirmation committees. Any explanation. Unfortunately, we are afraid that the real explanation is that Washington is simply full of thieving tax cheats in such numbers that you can’t throw a dart without drilling one in the temple.
And if we resign ourselves to the prospect of coping with these (unintentional) scofflaws day in and day out, couldn’t they come up with more entertaining explanations? The unintentional line is getting somewhat familiar, and is less the credible when your “unintentional” mistake ends up being to the tune of $147,000. $250 is “unintentional.” $147,000 is either intentional, or indicative of the fact that you should be no where near the national purse strings.
Since the people’s representatives can’t seem to figure out the morass of tax filings either (or have taken cynical advantage of the complexity to benefit themselves) isn’t it time to move to a flat tax? Shifting all those resources currently spent in tax preparation might not be a bad thing either. Accountants will complain, but in the current populist uproar of class warfare (and with Enron back in people’s memory) who will listen? Plus, it has the added benefit of preventing legislation via tax policy. Oh, and we won’t have to listen to the likes of Tim and Tom apologizing and blaming Turbo Tax. That perk alone seals our vote.
Daschle Apologizes in Letter to Senators, Tries to Explain Tax Lapses [The Wall Street Journal]
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- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker
the real crime is those glasses he has on. yeeesh.
i guess it’s easy to raise people’s taxes when you don’t pay them
Daschle reminds me of Barney Frank a bit. He is a socialist who has very little knowledge of the markets/economy and wields all sorts of power. Plain scary. Oh yeah, and he might be a gay.
Compared to the conspiracies behind the Rothchilds, Bechtel Corp, etc… Obama and his antics are nothing.
Bullshit – these guys should not be in public office after this shit.
If I “failed to keep a receipt” for $15,000! in “charitable donations” I’d be publicly lambasted. And the whole “is a car service provided to me a gift or income?” thing is a ludicrous as well.
Does this mean that if I take a black car home I have to report it as income? It is afterall a perk. Or maybe only the incremental cost over the $2 that the subway would charge. Or is the incremental cost not $2 but instead the cost of a monthly pass divided by the number of trips I take. Or should I divide by the number of trips I take for work only. Or maybe the tax code is just foolishly complicated and people get tripped up in it. Do you really think public figures aim to get away with things like this?
Flat marginal tax rate… Let’s do it!
That’s how the left get ahead of you and me, when we are forced to pay taxes, they pretend to. The right will just steal your money from under your nose, but at least they pay taxes on it.
In the news…
Obama stands by Daschle nomination (as he did with taxdodger Geithner)…
California too broke to give taxpayer rebates. IOUs dispensed….
Non-taxpayers to receive “tax rebates” in stimulus plan…
more (taxpayer)money, more TARP for financials..
Message recieved: only chumps pay taxes.
Let the tax revolts begin
do you have to be a Ph.D. econometrician to point out if these were a series of “honest” mistakes then at least one of these folks would have overpaid?
This is the change “you people” voted for..accept it and consider it a lesson learned – Rush Limbaugh for President ’12
Why isn’t anyone asking why a “charity” has a corporate jet and holds meetings in the Bahamas?
Just going to preemptively let the IRS know that the mistakes that will appear on my 2008 tax return were unintentional.
I am with 10. Why do all the unintentional mistakes result in underpayment of taxes?
14 Consider the tax code. There’s no reason to expect unintentional mistakes to be normally distributed around a mean.
@3 – there’s no “might” with Barney Fwank. He totally guts the starfish.
14 – consider the selection bias. overpayment gets on the news about as frequently as “airplane lands 15 minutes early without incident”.
still, i’m in favor of the following law: all members of congress shall complete their own tax returns without help from a third party using just IRS forms, a number 2 pencil, and a calculator in a proctored hall each march. you will have 3 hours to complete this test.
then just sit back and watch the tax code get simplified.
BO is doing a great job or bringing in more revenue – just keep nominating tax cheats.
Willie Nelson – for secretary of commerce
MC Hammer – for secretary of 2legit to quit
I have a picture of me and Barack during the election trail, thinking I’ll include it with my tax return showing they owe me a big refund.
#2 summed it up.
Things won’t get better until we notice that constructing moral absolutes like “universal health care” gives power to those claiming to advance them; and remember that this power, like all power, will be corrupted.
15… er yes, yes there is
Unintentional mistakes will be concentrated around a mean. Of course if people are all trying to pay the least amount possible and not investigating situations where they may be liable for extra taxes, you’d see a short bias. But then that would be intentional mistakes – or at least reckless disregard.
We all know how he made these mistakes, because it’s how we all do our taxes – pay what you owe on your reported income, find as many write-offs as possible, and don’t mention non-reported taxable benefits that no one checks up on. We juice our expenses, don’t pay taxes on per diems, and don’t even try to account for the tax status of non-cash benefits. It’s fine if you’re in private life, but if you’re a leftist politician you should really know better.
Instead of re-election, every politician should be forced to account for every dollar they spent personally and publicly, with a 50 year jail term and total asset forfeiture for any discrepancies. We should also eliminate salaries for politicians, White House staff, and confirmable appointees, and ban them from any lobbying or public salaries for ten years. Make public servants really be SERVANTS.
Rage has calmed down a bit. I love 17′s idea.
If politicians want to act like they’re better than the public they should at least be held to a higher standard, not a lower one.
A VAT tax on non-necessity items may be a better way to go than a flat income tax. While accountants would certainly be affected, such a regime change would also significantly affect corporate and tax lawyers… which of course is a good thing. It will never come to pass because, attorneys are the first or second largest source of campaign contributions (depending on the year) and the vast majority of politicians are lawyers. “Rome” will need to fall first.
http://www.evilesq.com
A flat tax = less opportunity to give tax breaks to buddies/back-scratchers, mistress, wife, other relatives, scumbags, and self. I’m sure I’ve missed a slew of other losers politicians have doled out money to.
When can we put in term limits?