[dan-o]

Don't worry Tom, since you decided to come clean in light of your nomination all is forgiven. A$$hole.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/us/politics/31daschle.html?_r=1

President Obama’s pick for health and human services secretary, Tom Daschle, failed to pay more than $128,000 in taxes, partly for free use of a car and driver that had been provided to him by a prominent businessman and Democratic fund-raiser, administration officials said Friday.

Mr. Daschle, concluding that he owed the taxes, filed amended returns and paid more than $140,000 in back taxes and interest on Jan. 2, the officials said.

The Finance Committee document said Mr. Daschle had amended his tax returns to show “unreported income from the use of a car service in the amounts of $73,031, $89,129 and $93,096 in 2005, 2006 and 2007, respectively.”

An administration official said Mr. Daschle’s failure to pay the taxes was “a stupid mistake.” But, the official said, Mr. Daschle should not be penalized because he had discovered the tax liability himself, paid up and brought it to the committee’s attention.

The committee report said, “Senator Daschle filed the amended returns voluntarily after Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate the senator to be the secretary of health and human services.”

Looks Obama has successfully transitioned DC into Chicago-style politics

 

[Silver]

It's not fair to blame that on Chicago politics or Obama.

Daschle's been around DC for a loooong time. What a dickhole.

(Obama is fair game for not finding another candidate, however. 0 for 2, big guy.)

 

[dan-o]

Fair enough. After living in Chicago I pretty much expect that crap. It was a sport there, especially when compared to the Blackhawks level of play. (johnE dig from a wings fan).

I voted for O and don't think he's responsible. The trite remarks regarding it being 'no big deal' from his staff are infuriating though.

 

[Silver]

Fair enough. After living in Chicago I pretty much expect that crap. It was a sport there, especially when compared to the Blackhawks level of play. (johnE dig from a wings fan).

I voted for O and don't think he's responsible. The trite remarks regarding it being 'no big deal' from his staff are infuriating though.

The Hawks are great to watch this year. There's something to be said for ****ting the bed for 5 or 6 years straight, as long as the fans come back when you get a couple of those high picks to pan out.

Obama isn't responsible for Daschle's oops (legitimate or retroactive, either way) but he is responsible for not finding another person to fill that job. That's a big black (ha!) mark as far as I'm concerned.

 

[sanjuro]

I'm not too worry about the stain on Obama, but there is something different between Geither and Daschle.

Geithner's tax problem seemed like a bookkeeping error, but something about driving around in a free car (with a driver) seems too much like a payoff.

 

[stevew]

but something about driving around in a free car (with a driver) seems too much like a payoff.

impossible!

 

[RenegadeRick]

I don't watch a lot of TV, so lots of times I am amazed when I see commercials. So the other day when I saw these green toned dead presidents hawking TurboTax on the TV I got really upset. Does our tax code need to be so complicated that we need to buy a funking software product to get our money back from the IRS? Let me state that again. OUR MONEY.

So because taxes are such a clusterfunk, this provides every a$$hole who wants it the "oh, I didn't understand the law" defense. Let me just pay my penance and all my sins are forgiven, right? Must be nice to be liquid enough to just be able to pony up $140k on the spot, eh?

My guess is that in his position as HHS Secretary, little Tommy plans to gain from graft and free carp way more than a measly $140k, otherwise, why pay up? I can't believe it would be because it was "right."

I am not planning to watch the game today, instead I will be doing my taxes myself today. By hand. I will be damned if I would allow anyone to take my money just so I can get my money back. MY MONEY.

If I can get past the whole unconstitutional aspect of the income tax, and I can choke down that big shizzle sandwich, then we move on to filing. As an IT guy I would enjoy (no... tolerate) filing my taxes electronically. You know, it ain't like my wife and I make a lot of money, but we have all these forms and schedules and worksheets to fill out and there ain't no free electronic filing option for us. So if you want to understand why I do it by hand, see the preceding paragraph.

God Bless America™

 

[Samirol]

I don't watch a lot of TV, so lots of times I am amazed when I see commercials. So the other day when I saw these green toned dead presidents hawking TurboTax on the TV I got really upset. Does our tax code need to be so complicated that we need to buy a funking software product to get our money back from the IRS? Let me state that again. OUR MONEY.

So because taxes are such a clusterfunk, this provides every a$$hole who wants it the "oh, I didn't understand the law" defense. Let me just pay my penance and all my sins are forgiven, right? Must be nice to be liquid enough to just be able to pony up $140k on the spot, eh?

My guess is that in his position as HHS Secretary, little Tommy plans to gain from graft and free carp way more than a measly $140k, otherwise, why pay up? I can't believe it would be because it was "right."

I am not planning to watch the game today, instead I will be doing my taxes myself today. By hand. I will be damned if I would allow anyone to take my money just so I can get my money back. MY MONEY.

If I can get past the whole unconstitutional aspect of the income tax, and I can choke down that big shizzle sandwich, then we move on to filing. As an IT guy I would enjoy (no... tolerate) filing my taxes electronically. You know, it ain't like my wife and I make a lot of money, but we have all these forms and schedules and worksheets to fill out and there ain't no free electronic filing option for us. So if you want to understand why I do it by hand, see the preceding paragraph.

God Bless America™

It is a hell of a lot better than a "Fair"Tax system

The 16th Amendment is part of the Constitution last time I checked, and any tax protest case has been laughed out of court.

I just can't help but laugh whenever I see someone type MY TAXES or MY MONEY

 

[RenegadeRick]

It is a hell of a lot better than a "Fair"Tax system

Nope. If there must be a tax, a use tax is where it is at.

The 16th Amendment is part of the Constitution last time I checked, and any tax protest case has been laughed out of court.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and how do those judges get paid? Oh yeah, taxes. No reason to suspect that decision.

I just can't help but laugh whenever I see someone type MY TAXES or MY MONEY

Glad I could help you enjoy your morning. So who's money is it then?

 

[Samirol]

Well, what I said above was a false dichotomy, because there are more options beyond the FairTax and the current tax system. It should be easier, of course, that is without question.

Do you think that the 16th amendment wasn't properly ratified, because the text is pretty clear

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Saying that a CPA steals your money because the tax system is complicated is ridiculous and misleading, because they are selling a service.

 

[RenegadeRick]

Do you think that the 16th amendment wasn't properly ratified, because the text is pretty clear

It's a dead horse that I won't beat today.

Saying that a CPA steals your money because the tax system is complicated is ridiculous and misleading, because they are selling a service.

This is a service that should clearly not be necessary. And the commercials imply that you can't get all the money back that you deserve without buying their product. Bull****. This tax form thing comes with instructions. I am looking at my 1040 package right now and I would tell you how many pages there are in there, but the IRS is too damned smart to number the godforsaken thing sequentially. I can tell you this, it goes up to page 92, and then we get cleverness like D-1, SE-3, and then the last page with an actual number on it is 19. So there you have it, only 19 pages of instructions that you need to understand to get your Maximum Refund. I wonder why everyone doesn't do it themselves?

 

[RenegadeRick]

And since I am a gullible bastard I followed the lmgtfy link I posted above and saw in the results that TaxACT had a totally free federal edition, their marketing materials said that ANYONE could use their product to file for free.

So I downloaded and installed it but since I didn't really trust it, I pulled out my network cable while I worked. I didn't even make it to line 7 on the 1040 form until I would have needed an upcharge to continue. So I uninstalled the bitch and I am sharpening up my pencils.

I guess I will just have to remember to laugh the next time I hear about free tax software that can be used by ANYONE.

 

[dan-o]

I would take a bullet for my CPA. His fees are a pittance in relation to the money he saves me. If you life isn't financially complicated do them yourself or use a free service like Toshi listed in the Lounge.

The fact that tax services exist isn't necessarily indicative of an overly complicated tax system. A cup of coffee isn't complicated but there's a place to buy it on every corner.

 

[RenegadeRick]

I would take a bullet for my CPA. His fees are a pittance in relation to the money he saves me.

You are free to believe what you wish, but your accountant does not save you anything. Unless he is running some kind of money laundering operation for you, you are entitled to what you get.

The fact that tax services exist isn't necessarily indicative of an overly complicated tax system.

But the fact that you believe that the use of these services is getting you money you couldn't get otherwise is.

A cup of coffee isn't complicated but there's a place to buy it on every corner.

Ah, yes. As that great patriot Jello Biafra once said, "Give me convenience or give me death." It is the American way.

 

[JohnE]

Fair enough. After living in Chicago I pretty much expect that crap. It was a sport there, especially when compared to the Blackhawks level of play. (johnE dig from a wings fan).

I voted for O and don't think he's responsible. The trite remarks regarding it being 'no big deal' from his staff are infuriating though.

Hey...oww...

 

[stevew]

Ah, yes. As that great patriot Jello Biafra once said, "Give me convenience or give me death." It is the American way.

he's a piece of sh*t who fvcks over former employees and band members.

a totally worthless cvnt.

you'd be better off sucking gwb's cock.

he should get his ass kicked by skinheads at least once a week.

 

[RenegadeRick]

give georgie my number, wouldja?

 

[dan-o]

You are free to believe what you wish, but your accountant does not save you anything.

I own a business, operate a trust for my mentally handicapped brother, a real estate trust for my father in law and have two kids. My accountant saves me time while ensuring that I get everything that is coming to me.

The fee for his service is a bargain IMO as the thing I value most is my time.
I could spend my time learning tax code, just like I could learn how to build thatched huts, but I have better things to do and not enough time to do them.

 

[RenegadeRick]

All good and decent things, and you shouldn't have to learn a complex and intricate tax code to get a fair shake. Nor should you have to give up a share of it to deal with the onerous burden the government has placed upon you. I think that was the point. I now have all my paperwork together and will not return to post again until I am done. Time me.

 

[dan-o]

Here's hint: hackey sacks can't be listed as expenses.

 

[dante]

All good and decent things, and you shouldn't have to learn a complex and intricate tax code to get a fair shake. Nor should you have to give up a share of it to deal with the onerous burden the government has placed upon you. I think that was the point. I now have all my paperwork together and will not return to post again until I am done. Time me.

Couldn't you just sort of put your tin foil hat on top of your computer to protect it from the baddies?

And if you'd been slightly more trusting, you could have easily done your taxes online through taxact, and you wouldn't have had to pay a penny until you'd seen what your total amount owed (or refunded), all of your deductions, etc. You only have to put in your CC number at the end to efile.

 

[RenegadeRick]

Here's hint: hackey sacks can't be listed as expenses.

If you were a professional hackey sack player or a manufacturer or sales rep you could.

Couldn't you just sort of put your tin foil hat on top of your computer to protect it from the baddies?

Initially, I tried putting the hat on top of my cable modem, but the data was still getting through, so I unplugged the ethernet cable and put the end of the cable inside the hat and that seemed to do the trick.

And if you'd been slightly more trusting, you could have easily done your taxes online through taxact, and you wouldn't have had to pay a penny until you'd seen what your total amount owed (or refunded), all of your deductions, etc. You only have to put in your CC number at the end to efile.

I did start to use it, but I had more than one of their "life events" and the free service only allowed one. I mean come on, because I have childcare expenses and a home equity loan I have to pay more?

So I finished my federal and state returns in just over 3 hours. A new personal best. I will still spend an hour tomorrow recopying it in ink and scanning the return, so let's say 4 hours total. I'm getting over $5k for my trouble so I would call that a pretty decent hourly wage if it weren't for the fact that it was MY MONEY to begin with.

I had to file form 1040, Schedule A, B, C-EZ (new this year, although I had done it in the past), Long SE, 2 years worth of a Pub 525 worksheet (also new this year), the AMT worksheet and form 2441. Is that a complex return? The software companies seem to think so.

I sure hope I didn't "overlook" anything. With all that intricate calculating and such it would be embarrassing if I happened to ever find myself in public office.

I did learn something new from Pub 525 that would have helped Blago out had he been able to sell that Senate seat. Check out the item starting with the letter B on page 31 of http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p525.pdf for laughs. The IRS always has to be sure they get their cut of the action.

 

[dante]

I did start to use it, but I had more than one of their "life events" and the free service only allowed one. I mean come on, because I have childcare expenses and a home equity loan I have to pay more?

So I finished my federal and state returns in just over 3 hours. A new personal best. I will still spend an hour tomorrow recopying it in ink and scanning the return, so let's say 4 hours total.

I said you have to use their online one, it'll let you go through it all without giving them a CC #. Just choose the "Premium" and go to town...

Went through their online program, and even though it was spread out over a couple days, probably took an hour (and was reasonably intricate), *maybe* an hour and a half. Grand total paid $17 for both Federal and State, and I'm getting my refund (direct deposit) on Wed, just under a week from when we clicked submit. For the time saved, the error checking that it does, and the fact that I don't have to worry about my 7 looking like a 1 it's well worth it.

I'm getting over $5k for my trouble so I would call that a pretty decent hourly wage if it weren't for the fact that it was MY MONEY to begin with.

So you're griping because you filled out your W-4 form wrong?

 

[RenegadeRick]

I am griping over the whole principle of the thing. You should not have to pay one cent, or even 17 hundred of 'em to get what is owed to you. And what about providing detailed personal information to some faceless company? That seems like poor practice, no matter how honest and trustworthy their privacy policy reads.

And no, I filled out my w-4 properly. My wife is in a somewhat unusual tax situation, and we always get a big refund. But don't worry, I won't really get to keep it. I just gotta turn around and plow it into my property taxes next month anyhow.

 

[dante]

I am griping over the whole principle of the thing. You should not have to pay one cent, or even 17 hundred of 'em to get what is owed to you. And what about providing detailed personal information to some faceless company? That seems like poor practice, no matter how honest and trustworthy their privacy policy reads.

And no, I filled out my w-4 properly. My wife is in a somewhat unusual tax situation, and we always get a big refund. But don't worry, I won't really get to keep it. I just gotta turn around and plow it into my property taxes next month anyhow.

If the government came out with a tax program, and it was free you just had to fill in the information and they'd do all the calculation and tell you what you owed, would you really trust them?

 

[RenegadeRick]

If the government came out with a tax program, and it was free you just had to fill in the information and they'd do all the calculation and tell you what you owed, would you really trust them?

yeah. that is pretty much how it works now.

fill out worksheet:

• subtract line 2 from line 1.
• write difference on line 3.
• look up value on line 3 in little table you have no idea why this value is what it is.
• write value down on line 4.
• multiply value on line 4 by apparently random decimal value.
• write product on line 5.
• if line 5 is greater than line 2, throw this sheet away because you didn't need to fill this out after all.
• if line 5 is less than line 2 then record line 5 on 1040 and pay us bitch. we pwn you.

 

[Toshi]

And since I am a gullible bastard I followed the lmgtfy link I posted above and saw in the results that TaxACT had a totally free federal edition, their marketing materials said that ANYONE could use their product to file for free.

So I downloaded and installed it but since I didn't really trust it, I pulled out my network cable while I worked. I didn't even make it to line 7 on the 1040 form until I would have needed an upcharge to continue. So I uninstalled the bitch and I am sharpening up my pencils.

I guess I will just have to remember to laugh the next time I hear about free tax software that can be used by ANYONE.

www.freefilefillableforms.com ? you can find a link to it on IRS.gov under free file. maybe i could use it for free only because i'm poor but it worked for me.

 

[RenegadeRick]

www.freefilefillableforms.com ? you can find a link to it on IRS.gov under free file. maybe i could use it for free only because i'm poor but it worked for me.

It looks like it's got all my forms. Maybe I will give that a whirl instead of recopying it tomorrow. Efile would be a plus, except for the fact that I won't get to keep the money anyhow. Oh well, maybe I can at least save the IRS some data entry costs and I am certain I will see those benefits show up in lower tax rates for all Americans.

 

[Defenestrated]

Ah, yes. As that great patriot Jello Biafra once said, "Give me convenience or give me death." It is the American way.

You are aware that Jello Biafra is a socialist, right?

 

[Samirol]

You are aware that Jello Biafra is a socialist, right?

He isn't a socialist, just a leftist anarchist

 

[dan-o]

And another..........

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/03/performance.nominee.withdraws/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nancy Killefer on Tuesday withdrew her nomination to become chief performance officer, a new post in President Obama's administration, a White House spokesman told CNN.

Officials said privately the reason for the withdrawal was unspecified tax issues.

 

[RenegadeRick]

What's this? Didn't she just have an extra $140k laying around to make everything OK like Tom did?

Are there no honest men (or women) amongst BO's nominees?

How is it that these tax issues come to light so quickly after nomination, but never revealed themselves before? Perhaps the code is not so complex after all and the reality is that Washington is chock full of lying cheating scumbags.

 

[ohio]

to deal with the onerous burden the government has placed upon you

and what a burden it is what with it's education, power lines and roadways. woe is me for living in a phenomenally safe nation with functioning infrastructure and breathtaking national parks.

 

[ohio]

How is it that these tax issues come to light so quickly after nomination, but never revealed themselves before?

Do you really need to ask that question? Seriously?

If tax issues came to light before the nomination, then... wait for it... they weren't nominated. I'm sure there's a long (LONG) list of candidates that weren't nominated for a whole slew of reasons.

 

[dante]

Part of it definitely is the risk/reward aspect of the whole thing. Nobody is going to "forget" to claim something when their financial institution sends the government a 1099 form. However, non-monetary gifts are hard to be spotted by the IRS, and you probably wouldn't get caught even if you were audited. The IRS isn't going to look at what car is sitting in your driveway and ask if it's yours or someone's letting you borrow it (for free). Daschle thought that he could get away with accepting a service (limo) and not declaring it (the IRS never would've called him on it) as income. The dumb move that he made is that he didn't excuse himself from the process a LONG time ago since he had to know that this was going to come up.

Geitner is a different case, since he was informed by his accountant that he didn't have to pay the taxes. I feel that really is an honest mistake, but Daschle's "oh, I forgot that I had a chauffeured limo provided by a separate entity at no cost to myself" is really, REALLY fishy...

edit: Buh bye!

 

[dan-o]

And another head rolls......

(CNN) -- Former Sen. Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a statement Tuesday from the White House

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/03/daschle/index.html

 

[$tinkle]

from the freakanomics blog @ nyt: tax cheats or tax idiots?

 

[$tinkle]

Obama On Daschle: "I Messed Up"

good for him
move on

 

[Defenestrated]

Wow a leader who admits fault, although I suppose anything is a step in the right direction at this foul point in time.

 

[Samirol]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/us/politics/01daschle.html

A spokeswoman for Mr. Daschle, Jenny Backus, said Mr. Daschle became concerned last June that he might owe taxes on the car and driver, and instructed his accountant to investigate. Mr. Obama named Mr. Daschle to the health secretary’s post on Dec. 11. But it was not until late December or early January, after the accountant came back to Mr. Daschle with a report on the back taxes owed, that the former senator informed the White House transition team. Ms. Backus said Mr. Daschle did not think to mention it earlier, in part because “he thought his accountant was taking care of it,” and in part because he had no idea the amount owed would be so high.

So he wasn't lying and he wasn't intentionally cheating the system, but Daschle is still in the pocket of health care companies and has somewhat unofficially lobbied.