What the heck is it with taxes??

[nadine_mn]

Seriously.. I don't get it. Maybe its because I have always been so poor that I got refunds, but how can taxes for intelligent people be so fricking hard.

I know they have apologized and paid them. ie:

Franken here in MN
Daschle
Killefer
etc etc etc

I know the tax code is ugly... hell in law school I had to tax law at 7:30 in the morning, and trust me... I barely made it through. That is why we have professionals...

But come on now... its an embarrassment for Dems... so many of us say we don't mind paying taxes because it is part of making a better society and yet...
Its like we are handing the Republicans thier attack ads on a silver platter. Maybe someone smarter than me can explain this outbreak in issues

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Greed over ideals

It is the usual sense of entitlement: I am rich/famous/powerful/important, so the rules do not apply to me.

[Beavker]

2. That's why I voted for Obama

Seemingly the 'least' rich of many of the viable candidates. Someone that might even vaguely remember what it was like to work for a living.

[mzteris]

3. do they "do" their own taxes?

I mean, really - they have accountants and tax attorneys don't they?

I don't understand how the individual can really be held "responsible" for something that someone else did or did not do (though, yes, I understand that "legally" the individual IS responsible whether they know about it or not).

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. NO!

Remember Geithner - who earned MILLIONS - telling the committee that he used TURBOTAX!!!!!!!!!!

I am still aghast at that one.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. Zoe Baird-Kimba Wood

Didn't Democrats learn anything from those two fuckups so damn long ago?

I gotta say, I'm just worn out by this tax bullshit. It has nothing to do with the competence of those who are nominated. The GOPigs have put the Democrats on the defensive as a full-time job.

Sitting here, I am hard-pressed to recall any Republican nominee who was deep-sixed because of a tax problem. Were there any?

Pettiness. All pettiness and totally beside the point.

[jobycom]

6. If your entire portfolio is just your job, then it's easy.

But if you have a job, several investment vehicles--some taxable, others not--investment income from real estate, stocks, bonds, CDs, and savings accounts, a couple of semi-honorary positions at universities and on corporate boards--some of which carry a stipend--partnerships in several for profit and non-profit organizations, and you also have expenses involved in each of those sources of income, some of which would be tax deductible because of the organization structure, or as business expenses, or for charity purposes, or because of the vehicle itself, and others which would not be tax deductible because of specific laws forbidding that type of deduction in that specific business, or because the industry itself does not allow deductions, so that the same type of expenditure could be deductible for one company but not for another, etc, it can get confusing.

Add to that that most people with that many investments and expenses don't spend a lot of time doing their own taxes, but instead hire a professional who may or may not know what they are doing (you wouldn't know until you got busted) and who is trying to impress you the boss the number of deductions he can find, and you have a lot of room for errors that the taxpayer has no clue he or she has committed until it all gets exposed.

I worked for a former senator one time who paid me low wages to do simple research around his office. I was hired in October, and earned well below the reporting requirement, so he paid or reported no taxes on me. He also gave me a present for my daughter when she was born, and that present would be valued at more than enough to put me over the wage limit, but not over the gift limit. So, was that gift part of my income, since I was his employee, or was it a gift to my daughter, making it exempt from payroll taxes? If he had been a cabinet nominee, and that came out, it could be interpreted in such a way to cost him the appointment.

[Morning Dew]

7. If I recall correctly, Franken's were paid to the wrong state... but they were paid.

I think the unemployment payment problem he had was a different deal, though.