http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090131/ap_on_go_pr_wh/daschle_taxes I don't really think this is a big deal. The Geithner situation was much worse in my opinion.
I don't understand. He got to use the company car and a driver, and he has to pay taxes? If I understand this correctly then all cop, service repair men, and other employees that get to use a company car, have to pay taxes?
If you have a company car and use it, you pay taxes on some of the use - the examples you gave are not company cars.
typically, with exceptions, for benefits you pay taxes on them because they are essentially compensation. say you're an nba player and you got traded mid season, the nba team put you up at a corporate apartment for 3 months. you'd pay taxes on the value of the 3 months in that corporate apartment. or say you're a politician and your party bought you clothes. unless it fits into a narrow exception of uniforms, you'd pay taxes on the value of the clothes received. that being said, this may very well be a forgetful mistake. he was a longtime gov't guy so he simply may not have had an accountant/lawyer who would know these things.
According to the article, he does have an accountant. Regardless, if you are in a position to have a car service available for personal use, you should understand (or research) the tax ramifications. In addition, how can he forget to claim consulting fees ($88,000+ in 2007)? That is obvious income.
Not many people do pay taxes on personal use of a company vehicle. If it isn't reported anywhere, it is very unlikely that you will pay taxes on it or your accountant ever knows you even received the benefit.
It will be interesting to see how the vote goes here. On one hand, it's an easier opportunity to make a stand on the issue (whereas people felt like we really needed a Treasury Secretary ASAP). On the other, if tax issues didn't stop you from confirming the guy in charge of the IRS, why would it stop you here? It probably also helps Daschle that he personally knows and worked with a lot of these people, and by most accounts, he was a pretty fair leader in the Senate.
i don't have a problem with incidental usage that doesn't get reported, but this was not just incidental right. its around 30-40k a year. thats a lot of car. and even if we presume its not typically reported, daschle was a politician who had future political hopes. there were even rumors of him running for dem nomination. again he paid them back, its fine, i don't think this should kill his nomination. but this wasn't some incidental perk, but clearly a pretty nice perk.
At least Obama is getting folks to pay their back taxes. If he creates a few more cabinet positions and/or appoints more folks that need confirmation, the IRS may see a surplus of funds.
Driver and car will certainly drive up the cost. I wonder if he would have accepted the driver and car if he knew he would have to pay that much.
