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Treasury Secretary designate Timothy Geithner, under prodding from the Senate Finance Committee, said that he misfiled his taxes between 2001 and 2003—resulting in unpaid taxes discovered only during his vetting last fall—while using Turbo Tax. Geithner was quick to say, "I want to say I take full responsibility" in taking the fault (and not blame the computer software), and the Washington Post was amused, "The man charged with leading this nation out of recession -- an architect of the $700 billion financial rescue package -- hunched over a computer, surrounded by stacks of paper, trying to figure out his taxes, just like the 18 million other working stiffs who bought TurboTax last year." Geithner's snafu stems from freelance work at the IMF—he thought he was an employee while the IMF just considered him a contractor and did not take out his taxes. At any rate, he's expected to be confirmed next week.
Geithner: I Suck At Turbo Tax
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John Sexton could be the highest paid college prez.
http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/12/02/is-joh
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It's pretty obvious he has nothing to hide and that this was a mistake. He admitted it. Lets move along.
If anyone thinks this was just a mistake, and that he should be given the appointment is suffering from Obamania Derangement Syndrome IMO.
Even if you "willfully suspend disbelief" (thank you Hillary), and go with the story he made such a dumb mistake REPEATEDLY... Who would want such a person as Tres Sec.?
How does one not know they need to pay SS tax? Especially someone who is claimed to be such an economic wizard? Also, as someone who was a contractor as he was for the IMF and used turbotax, I can tell you that it does insist you pay this tax unless you force an override. Also, the initial papers you sign when you join the IMF state clearly that they do not withhold and list clearly the self employment taxes you must pay as a US citizen. He was clearly trying to evade taxes (and when he corrected his taxes he didn't correct the prior 2 years he was in the same job until forced by the nominating committee or the other questionable deductions he had for someone in such a high income bracket).
This is BS. Especially since this is the guy who was behind this bailout mania mess we are in that is accomplishing nothing...
Obama, please pick someone else that will not tarnish your presidency so early and on something so critical.
You know what, this is a completely legitimate excuse. I used Turbotax one year, and it completely f'd up by NY City tax. I had no idea about it until I started to get paperwork about a tax lien. It was hell getting it vacated. F U Intuit!
It really is not a legitimate excuse at all. Turbotax walks you through the whole process. It asks you to enter the information from your W-2 which would include tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare withholding, etc. Since Geithner did not have a W-2 because he worked for the IMF he could done several different things. One would have been to fudge the numbers and put his gross income into the box on Turbotax that would correspond to a W-2 and then left all of the other boxes blank. What he should have done is checked the box saying he did not receive a W-2 and Turbotax would have moved to a section for the self-employed. It's not that difficult. I do some consulting in addition to my primary job and I managed to report my self-employment income and pay me tax due. Oh yeah, I use Turbotax.
If the amount in upaid taxes was a couple hundred dollars or even a thousand or two, then it would certainly be believable even for a person with the expertise of Geithner. However, $34,000 in upaid taxes looks and smells of intentional efforts to underpay the government. We need need to see and hear more facts.
Whether intentional or not, this has nothing to do with reaching a determination of qualification for the post. This is a distraction and it's being blown way out of proportion--he paid, accepted responsibility, and if this is all they've got on the guy, they need to appoint him if they determine him qualified based on actual expertise in his field (which is what the questioning would be about in a reasonable world).
Ok turds, first of all..how does economic whiz translate to tax whiz? As a one-time Turbo Tax user I can assure you it does suck and I was more skeptical of the guy when I thought he had an accountant do his taxes for him..
Secondly, you tap out on social security after the first 102k of income you earn...and if you've never tapped out before, you should try it..it feels good..
That said, if employed you pay 7.65% and your employer pays 7.65%...if self-employed a la IMF you pay 12.4%. Assuming Geitner taps out that makes his SS liability 12.7k per year max..which is how you get to the 34k number so easily..so I am not sure why the aggregate size of his oversight is an issue at all..
The only question worth pondering is..whats 34k to a guy ballin' like Geitner really? I bet he spends more than that in a year on bottle service...
An economic whiz, sure. a tax whiz? no. An idiot willing to intentionally jeopardize his career for a little extra cash? I doubt it. Is he the man for the job? No doubt he is. So WTF..ya know.
how does economic whiz translate to tax whiz?
Because it speaks to general intelligence? It's not that hard to read the IRS instructions.
Secondly, you tap out on social security after the first 102k of income you earn
How is this relevant? You still owe the tax - which Turbotax will calculate for you. By the way, every year you get a Social Security statement from the IRS. Maybe Geithner should have looked at his and wondered why his contributions for 2001 to 2004 were zero.
#8, thank you for the explanation. However, you fail to put to the rest the notion that finance guys are condescending d-bags.
I don't know if interpreting the IRS tax code can be qualified as a "matter of general intelligence"...if that were the case, why the hell would you shell out $50 bucks (more money if you want to file a state) for TurboTax in the first place? Because you prefer to type rather than handwrite? (They have editable PDF forms for that even) Or perhaps it is because you percieve some value-add in Turbo Tax's easy to follow tutorials..because reading the goddamn IRS tax instructions drives you up a goddamn wall?
As far as the comment on tapping out of Social Security..it is only half relevent to the extent that it helps to demonstrate how after 4 years of non-payment Geitner was able to scale to a tax liability of 34k. Otherwise I said it just to make it known that I personally tap out on Social Security.
@Jack Donaghy - you're welcome. My mother candidly pointed out to me that I am a condescending d-bag long ago. I guess its just the cross I bare.
*bear. For you grammar/idiom turds.
I don't know if interpreting the IRS tax code can be qualified as a "matter of general intelligence
I'd agree if you were trying to read the entire US tax code as written. Figuring out the parts that apply to your own personal situation by reading the IRS publications is not difficult at all - especially when Turbotax is prompting you the entire way through the process. I guess from the beginning he just assumed the self-employment tax didn't apply to him so he never read up on it.
As for why I buy Turbotax, it's mainly to do state taxes. At this point I could do federal in my sleep. I have moved around a few times and I don't care to keep learning the rules each state. Massachusetts was a nuisance. I don't know if they still have it but in the 1990s they had five different rates for long term capital gains. They had different tax rates on bank interest depending on whether the bank was located in or out of state. Anyway, it's $38 on Amazon for the Deluxe version including state. And they throw in Federal e-file as well. Better than paying an accountant.
So you all do realize that he is going to be in charge of (in addition to many other things) the IRS right? I would kind of be hoping a guy like that might be clued in enough to do his own taxes. But blaming Turbo Tax? really?
This is bound to be hilarious.
I hope Geithner is too busy fixing the economy to even bother with doing his own taxes. Also, if the top geek at Treasury screws up his filing, maybe it's time to streamline the process?
Dirty little tax cheat.
"Tax Cheat Named Treasury Secretary"
Here we go again.......
OK so just to parallel this one: In '07 I worked a gig as a "Contractor", the company I worked for fully disclosed this employment as CONTRACT EMPLOYMENT, I signed an agreement of understanding regarding this type of employment at their request. After the end of '07 (and during the tax prep season), I received a 1099 statement from this employer and on that statement it said I made X amount of money AND PAID "0" in taxes. I then did (as I have done for YEARS) bought and installed TURBOTAX. I ran through the interview and entered all of my relevent info. While doing so it ASKED me if I had received a 1099, so of course I said yes, completed the information required, saw the liability due to this entry, and completed my taxes.
Now I am not an accounting professional but I had NO MISUNDERSTANDING about the type of employment I had as a CONTRACTOR. The company I worked for made it clear that they were REPORTING the income I made. And answering a SIMPLE question HONESTLY in TurboTax allowed me to pay what I OWED.
So the way I see it: either he beleived the employment was done UNDER THE TABLE so he would not have to enter the correct information HONESTLY, or he was trying to SKATE on the taxes OWED. In either case I have only 1 question for everyone to consider: did he EVER report ANY of this income until FORCED to do so?