Don't Jump Timmy
Paul Caron of TaxProf Blog wrote this today:
Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner implied at his confirmation hearing that the mistakes in his tax returns were caused by his use of the TurboTax software program.
Of course, as any tax professional knows, TurboTax (and any of the other leading software programs) easily calculates self-employment tax (as well as the disallowance of a dependent care deduction for the cost of your kids’ overnight camps).
The errors here were entirely Geithner’s, not TurboTax’s.
A few questions:
How is it possible that a guy like Geithner doesn’t have a CPA or Tax Lawyer preparing his tax returns for him?
At a minimum, this shows poor judgment. If Geithner wasn’t conversant enough with the tax laws and the use of Turbo Tax, he shouldn’t have tried to do the returns himself.
Why would Geithner mention Turbo Tax if he didn’t want people to infer that it was the software’s fault and not his?
Clearly Mr. Geithner believes that you can blame the software and avoid culpability. But the truth is the Courts have consistently found that a taxpayer’s use of tax preparation software does not exculpate him from filing a false or inaccurate tax return.
What would have been the fallout had any member of the Bush administration (much less the Treasury Secretary who oversees the Internal Revenue Service) blamed a tax software program for the failure to file an accurate tax return?
My guess is he would have been accused of war crimes.
Related External Posts
Geithner Blames Turbo Tax - Joe Kristan
Related Internal Posts
Obama’s Top Tax Man Perplexed by Tax Code
Egalitarians Unite: Demand Geithner Withdrawal from Treasury Consideration
8 responses so far ↓
1 DBE // Jan 24, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Do you have any reference to any transcript or other source in which Geithner “blamed” TurboTax for his mistakes?
I saw excerpts of his testimony before Congress, and he only gave the name of the software in response to a question, and immediately stated that the problem was NOT with the software, but with himself.
For example, that is the version of events reported by the L.A. Times, at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/01/obama-cabinet-a.html
2 Peter // Jan 26, 2009 at 5:46 pm
DBE,
If you read my post carefully, you would have noticed that I said there was only one reason for him to mention that he used software at all – to shift the blame away from himself.
He’s a smooth guy and I understand he did his best to give the impression that he wasn’t blaming TurboTax.
But the truth (as I see it, of course) is that he was more than happy to point out that he used a popular tax software to do his tax returns.
The name of the software provider is not relevant, the fact that he voluntarily made it clear to the committee that he had relied on tax software is the important point.
By the way, I don’t trust the L.A. Times as far as I can throw Rosie O’Donnell.
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