Palin to pay tax on past per diem

[a kennedy]

By LISA DEMER

Gov. Sarah Palin must pay income taxes on thousands of dollars in expense money she received while living at her Wasilla home, under a new determination by state officials.

The governor's office wouldn't say this week how much she owes in back taxes for meal money, or whether she intends to continue to receive the per diem allowance. As of December, she was still charging the state for meals and incidentals.

"The amount of taxes owed is a private matter," Sharon Leighow, Palin's spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. "If the governor collects future per diem, those documents would be a matter of public record."

The revelation about Palin comes as U.S. senators, including Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, are under scrutiny over back taxes. A survey by the political newspaper and Web site Politico (www.politico.com) found that Begich was one of seven senators who acknowledged owing back taxes.

Some other state employees also owe back income taxes for travel payments and will be getting revised tax forms, Annette Kreitzer, state administration commissioner, said in an e-mail.

She wouldn't say which, or how many, employees will be receiving the notifications.

The payments became a touchy issue for Palin last fall when she was running for vice president and campaigned as a budget watchdog.

The Washington Post published a story in mid-September that said she had charged the state almost $17,000 for meals and incidentals while staying in her own home.

The state considers Juneau, where she lives in the Governor's Mansion, to be Palin's official duty station.

Palin billed the state for 312 nights spent in her Wasilla home during her first 19 months in office, according to the Washington Post. She received $60 a day tax free, money intended to cover meals and incidentals, while traveling on state business, her travel forms show.

full article: http://www.adn.com/palin/story/693695.html

[gratuitous]

1. Alaska's budget shortfall is solved!

Sarah Palin triumphs again.

[Wapsie B]

2. Tax hell, she should be made to refund it all.

[rocktivity]

3. CUE THE VONAGE THEME!

She should have been doing that all along, even if the policy was legal.

:woohoo:
rocktivity

[NeedleCast]

4. She shouldn't be getting Per Diem for living at home at all

That being said, I don't know why she has to pay taxes on it. When I was contracting to the feds and doing a lot of business travel, we never had to pay taxes on per diem. It was considered reimbursement, not income.

[jmg257]

5. Since when do you have to pay taxes on per-diem? Shit that will suck for alot of us here.

We travel often, and get per-diem it.

[whopis01]

6. When you get paid per-diem to live at home maybe?

She should be made to pay back all of the per-diem that she received for those days.

Effectively they have compromised and are acting as if it were part of her salary and then taxing her on it.