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Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: Werewolf on February 01, 2009, 12:07:10 PM

Title: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: Werewolf on February 01, 2009, 12:07:10 PM
1st Geitner and now Daschle  ($130K)- owe taxes - for a long time - and don't pay them (at least not until after they've been nominated for a cabinet post).

I'm confused....

If a regular citizen owed the IRS $130K for over a year the IRS would have nailed them hard. Tax liens, penalties, pay garnishment maybe even criminal charges.

Yet it seems the IRS did little to get taxes owed by Geitner and Daschle than ask politely for them to pay.

Seems like a double standard to me. Or the fix is in?

What the heck is going on here?
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: cassandra and sara's daddy on February 01, 2009, 12:14:37 PM
as someone whos had dealing with the irs   you overestimate their bite. they will work with and negotiate with most folks if you make an effort
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: Manedwolf on February 01, 2009, 12:27:24 PM
as someone whos had dealing with the irs   you overestimate their bite. they will work with and negotiate with most folks if you make an effort

If you have a name and power, they will work with you. If you are a nameless insect, they could care less.
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: Standing Wolf on February 01, 2009, 12:44:45 PM
Quote
Seems like a double standard to me. Or the fix is in?

The aristocrats deserve preferential treatment.
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: cassandra and sara's daddy on February 01, 2009, 01:01:38 PM
my actual experience with the irs have not been like that.  now if you get silly and try to tell em you're a sovreign alien or try some out and out fraud yea they'll break it off in you. but i work opn the priciple off aggresively claiming eveything i think i might be entitled to , kinda better to beg forgiceness than ask permission. as a result i have gotten to see them quite often. well aside from the 14 years i didn't file. thus far i've one some lost some but never ended up paying more than 100 bucks. one audit showed me owing quite a bit till further in the same auditor found something i failed to claim, business casualty loss, that balanced the other error. i don't like em but i found the hype to be just that  hype.  i think they encourage it to scare folks into compliance. it works
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: castle key on February 01, 2009, 01:09:48 PM
The Washington Post headline stated, "Daschle Delayed Revealing Tax Glitch."

Should I get audited, I will call it a glitch.....
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: Waitone on February 01, 2009, 05:19:23 PM
IRS walks a fine line.  It has to keep up the fiction that we have a voluntary tax system unlike, say Italy.  Too heavy a hand and the peeps get rebellious.  Too light and those same peeps quit playing the game.  Very often the IRS will see funny games and rather than act, simply sit and wait before dropping the hammer.  In the case of Dashle and Geithner I suspect the matter is more related to routine non-payment of taxes by "special people".  Both they and the IRS wink and nod at the game.
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: MikeB on February 01, 2009, 06:12:29 PM
Your average person if caught after an audit, never mind going to the IRS themselves admitting the mistake would likely get payment terms, and even likely get to pay a dime on the dollar type settlement.

I don't think you can compare the average person to this situation. I find it hard to believe Geithner didn't know he owed the taxes when he got extra pay to pay the taxes, wouldn't that extra pay be taxable too anyways? I find it hard to believe Daschle didn't know or shouldn't have known that that free car and driver weren't taxable, what was a senator doing accepting a free driver and car from a campaign donor anyways - aren't those illegal campaign contributions?

These are two obviously corrupt people, btw both also had jobs as lobbyists did they not? Did not our newest president state he wouldn't hire former lobbyists that had been lobbying in the last few years?

Hmmm hope and change, not seeing much change, unless open corruption vs. hidden is change, and I don't' even want to guess on what I'm supposed to hope for.

Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: Manedwolf on February 01, 2009, 08:02:55 PM
I like what one pundit said about this.

No wonder liberals like higher taxes. They never pay them.
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: anygunanywhere on February 01, 2009, 10:49:05 PM
I was audited when I was in the Navy. I had a wife and two sons. E-4 at the time. I took a deduction that all submarine sailors took. The back taxes and interest was almost two months pay.

The IRS acknowledged that yes, all sub sailors took the deduction but, hey! They couldn't audit them all! Pay the fines, squid.

We were eligible for food stamps then but didn't use them. This was the Carter Navy. He was ex-Navy and submarines too.

If my darling spouse had not been working and the boat wives not pitched in with each other for day care we would have been screwed.

To hell with Peanut Carter and the IRS.


Anygunanywhere

Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: DustinD on February 01, 2009, 11:34:55 PM
Doesn't it also depend on the administration and current political climate? I heard the IRS went soft around the time Bush took office because they were caught being dirty during the Clinton years.
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: Northwoods on February 02, 2009, 05:45:01 PM
Your average person if caught after an audit, never mind going to the IRS themselves admitting the mistake would likely get payment terms, and even likely get to pay a dime on the dollar type settlement.
The first part of that statment is true, the second is not.  To get any reduction in taxes owed (including interest) you have work out an Offer In Compromise (OIC).  To get them to accept an OIC you have to prove pauper status, and an unlikely ability to make enough money in the future to pay back the full amount.  Very few people qualify no matter what JK Harris says.
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: MechAg94 on February 03, 2009, 01:48:48 PM
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/02/022720.php
Someone dredged up an old Daschle campagn commericial.

http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2009/02/tom-daschles-forgotten-tax-dodge.html
Another forgotten tax dodge.

Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: MechAg94 on February 03, 2009, 01:49:45 PM
http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/2009/01/hr-735.html
LawDog posted this about the Rangel Rule Act of 2009.  A good start at least.
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: HankB on February 03, 2009, 01:54:03 PM
DASCHLE WITHDRAWS!!

Quote
WASHINGTON (ap)– Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination on Tuesday to be President Barack Obama's Health and Human Services secretary, dealing potential blows to both speedy health care reform and Obama's hopes for a smoother start as president.
Notice how AP can't help but editorialize?

The guy's tax cheating involved more money than most people make in a year - and BHO wanted him.

That makes two (2) nominees to fall because of tax problems.
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: Scout26 on February 03, 2009, 02:09:40 PM
But, but, but, but, but, Joe Biden told me it was patriotic to pay (more) taxes......
Title: deleted
Post by: Don't care on February 04, 2009, 09:56:35 PM
.
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: cassandra and sara's daddy on February 04, 2009, 10:04:14 PM
be careful what you wish for!  i know i would not enjoy that kinda scrutiny  but it would be a hoot to watch
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: john828 on February 04, 2009, 11:34:50 PM
Quote
Should I get audited, I will call it a glitch.....
 


Why not call it a campaign promise?  Quote me if you choose.
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: Manedwolf on February 05, 2009, 04:55:15 PM
Another one!

Why do they think that nobody will notice if they pay it all of a sudden now...?

Quote
A Senate committee today abruptly canceled a session to consider President Obama's nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis to be labor secretary in the wake of a report saying that her husband yesterday paid about $6,400 to settle tax liens against his business -- including liens that had been outstanding for as long as 16 years.

The report, by USA Today, came just before the Senate's Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee was slated to meet to consider Solis's nomination, which had been delayed by questions over her role on the board of the pro-labor organization American Rights at Work. A source said that committee members did not learn about the tax issue until today.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/02/05/solis_senate_session_canceled.html?hpid=topnews (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/02/05/solis_senate_session_canceled.html?hpid=topnews)

If Solis is out, La Raza will throw a fit. She's in their pocket.
Title: Re: The IRS and a Double Standard
Post by: Jim147 on February 05, 2009, 05:11:34 PM
Well, if this keeps happening they might just get rid of the IRS.

Wait, no they will just get better at hiding it.