Geithner apologizes for not paying taxes
January 21st, 2009 . by TexasFredGeithner apologizes for not paying taxes
WASHINGTON (AP) - Treasury Secretary-designate Tim Geithner said Wednesday he was careless in failing to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes earlier this decade and apologized to Congress.
He told the Senate Finance Committee he was sorry that his past transgressions were now an issue in his confirmation at a time of deepening economic crisis. He urged Congress to act quickly and forcefully to deal with the crisis. A top administration priority is to foster economic recovery and “get credit flowing again,” Geithner testified.
As to his failure to pay the payroll taxes from 2001 to 2004 while he worked for the International Monetary Fund, Geithner said: “These were careless mistakes. They were avoidable mistakes.”
“But they were unintentional,” he said. “I should have been more careful.”
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Geithner apologizes for not paying taxes
Have any of you fine folks ever been in *tax trouble*?? Have you ever been audited by chance?
If you have, you know, fully well, the IRS is NOT kind. They are not even polite, not even remotely polite! The IRS will belittle you, they will talk to you as if you are already a convicted criminal, and somehow, I don’t think “But they (errors) were unintentional, I should have been more careful.” is going to be an accepted excuse!
As Secretary of the Treasury, Geithner will be the head of the IRS. Is a guy that failed to pay taxes and then made what the IRS would consider to be incredibly LAME excuses, the guy we want heading the Treasury??
Geithner told the panel that he had prepared some of the returns himself with a popular tax-preparation computer program.
Ya know, if I had thought of this, I wouldn’t have needed a CPA when I was still doing business. Sure, I’d have paid taxes and penalties at some point but what the hell, I’d get a nice free pass from Congress and the Senate. The almost certain to be approved tax cheat that’s about to become Secretary of the Treasury would be my friend and he’d keep the IRS at bay while I explained how that Turbo Tax thing just didn’t get the job done.
If we want this nation to EVER prosper again we MUST remove those from power that have been proven to have engaged in improprieties. Legal, business, moral, whatever those improprieties may be. Our current president has admitted that he did cocaine and smoked pot. Bush was an admitted drug user and alcoholic in his past. Clinton used drugs too, no matter how many times the lying SOB says he didn’t inhale, and then there’s still that Monica thing that taints the Clinton presidency.
A tax cheat is no different. We must have leaders that are above reproach. Having a tax cheat like Tim Geithner at the head of Treasury would be akin to allowing Keith Richards to become the head of the DEA!
The Sec of Treasury is just another democrat politician. No responsibility. We’ll see how his dept treats tax scofflaws.
Doc Roy
I wonder, if he gets confirmed, how many of his buds will fail their math also with NOTHING said.
But consider: isn’t that absolutely perfect?
A tax cheat as literal head of the IRS?
But, hey, it’s about Obama and to impugn an Obama decision or appointment is RACIST. Shame!
BZ
Just another misstep that is the Obama Journey…
Have you seen the commercials on TV “I owed the IRS $$$$ but I only paid$$”?
That is what wrong with this country IMO, they don’t say “This is what the IRS said I owed them” They say ” I OWED the IRS” to me that is a sad state, if you owe, pay if you can’t pay don’t buy. There is no accountability anymore, it’s all about “What can I screw you out of” these folks that pay less make US pay more.
I love that last comparison Fred… And it’s accurate.
I bet Willie Nelson is banging his head against a wall just mumbling over and over, “all I needed to do was apologize.”
If Geithner can’t even take care of his own taxes, how is he going to take care of a nation?
Also, you’ve evidently NOT heard that Richards IS in the running for DEA Administrator.
BZ
So let me see if I get this straight…Al Capone, Leona Helmsley & Wesley Snipes as three examples don’t pay taxes and pay by being sent to jail but Tim Geithner doesn’t pay taxes, claims it was just a simple mistake, pays backtaxes and penalties then gets nominated (and more than likely confirmed/annointed) as Treasury Secretary? What’s wrong with this picture? Apparently to Obama liberals nothing. Pathetic.
IMHO the Obama administration is getting off to a very poor start right off the bat. And I don’t expect things to get any better or make sense.
Carl, whey you’re a liberal Obama supporter, that’s the reward you get for breaking the law.
There is NO WAY they can allow Geithner to be Head of IRS! No way! If they do I will lose any kind of respect to this country! Any kind of!
I just used turbo tax today. Ya reckon I’m going to jail?
Good one Fred….Keith Richards as head of DEA…..I am rushing out to buy Turbo Tax today though I fear the price may have already been increased…due to it’s recent gain in popularity…..