Treasury Secretary Nominee Tim Geithner “Forgets” To Pay Self-Employment Taxes?

Obama’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, apparently “forgot” to pay his self-employment taxes from 2001-2004, according to CNN Money.  The official White House excuse is that Geithner worked at the IMF at the time and the IMF, as an international organization, doesn’t withhold social security and medicare taxes from its employees paychecks.  While this is true, it has very little to do with the self-employment taxes Geithner owned over this period.

Is This The “Change” We’ve Kept Hearing About?

Robert Gibbs, the soon-to-be White house Spokesman, said the issue was a “common mistake.”  Bollocks.  In the age of abundant CPAs and inexpensive tax software, it is very, very, very, very unlikely this type of “mistake” could be made “accidentally.”  The forms are fairly easy to follow (and you have to fill out a certain form for self-employment income, so it’s not like he could have accidentally filled out the wrong form).  I sincerely doubt this was anything more than simple tax evasion.  I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

According to the story, Gibbs “quickly addressed the issue when he became aware of it,” but that very same story clearly states that he didn’t amend his 2001-02 returns until after he was nominated by Obama for the position.  But wait, the IRS audited him and charged him a penalty for this identical behavior in 2006 for tax years 2003-04.  I find it difficult to believe Geithner had no idea he didn’t make the exact same mistake in 2001-02 (how could he not realize it unless he was a complete idiot?).  Thus, he quite probably knew he owed additional taxes and penalties but didn’t do anything about it for over 2 years until the nomination.  At that point, he probably knew the nation would be going over his affairs with a fine-tooth comb and he wouldn’t be able to avoid paying those taxes any longer.  Rather than give up a huge promotion, Geithner decided to just pay what he owed.

Is this the change you’ve kept promising us, Mr Obama?