Raw;Geithner: Sorry About the Not-Paying-Taxes Thing

‘I Should Have Been More Careful’: Obama’s Treasury Pick Apologizes for Not Paying $34k in Taxes
Updated 11:30 AM EST, Wed, Jan 21, 2009

MSNBC WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary-designate Tim Geithner says he was careless in failing to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes earlier this decade taxes and has apologized to Congress.

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At his confirmation hearing, Geithner called the transgressions "careless mistakes" and unavoidable ones.

He told the Senate Finance Committee the failure to pay was "unintentional." But he also said, "I should have been more careful."

President Obama's aides have said Geithner paid his 2001 and 2002 taxes in November, even though legally he was not obligated to so many years later, after Obama's team discovered they were not paid.

Obama has offered his full, continued support for Geithner, saying he is confident the Senate will confirm him despite his "innocent mistake."

The Senate committee considering Geithner's nomination released 30 pages of records detailing the tax problems and other issues discovered after he was nominated. The materials show that the IRS audited Geithner in 2006 for tax years 2003 and 2004, noting then that he failed to pay self-employment taxes while working for the International Monetary Fund.

Geithner also received IMF pay in 2001 and 2002, and he handled his quarterly tax payments those years in the same improper way flagged by the IRS. But it wasn't until his nomination by Obama that he paid those taxes, a fact that's puzzling in light of arguments that Geithner's actions were simply "honest mistakes."

Geithner and others have pointed out that tax confusion abounds for employees at IMF and other international organizations who are required to handle all of their own taxes as if they were self-employed. The IRS offered a broad settlement in 2006 to those taxpayers, offering to waive most of the penalties because of the unique problems they experienced.

Most IMF employees who run into trouble with their taxes have problems because they have never filed as a self-employed worker, said one IMF official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

But Geithner had experience filing as a self-employed worker, handling taxes for a consulting business and for his wife's work, according to a report by the Senate committee.

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Added: Jan 21 2009 In: news_politics

Recorded on: Jan 21 2009

By: bellava Premium