Paul Caron alerts us to a Wall Street Journal article that reports that Lael Brainard, President Obama’s pick for the top international job at the Department of Treasury, has a home-office deduction tax problem:
Lael Brainard, nominated in March as Undersecretary for International Affairs, is the latest Obama appointee to be tripped up by the Senate Finance Committee. Of particular concern is Ms. Brainard’s use of a home-office tax deduction, according to people familiar with the inquiry.
The delay in Ms. Brainard’s nomination is especially noteable because her husband, Kurt Campbell, was confirmed by the Senate on June 25 as Assistant Secretary for East Asian Affairs. If the couple filed a joint return, any errors would be his, too. State Department nominees are under the jurisdiction of the Senate Foreign Relations panel, and they are not subject to Finance Committee vetting….
The WSJ asked a former Finance Committee investigator about the matter who said that home-office deductions always get the attention of committee members:
Dean Zerbe, a former investigator for the Finance Committee, said it is not uncommon for questions about home-office deductions to come up with respect to nominees’ tax returns.
“Any time we saw it, sure, we’d want to know what it is,” he said.
But he said at most, a discrepancy would lead committee staff to ask the nominee to file an amended return.
“Normally, that’s not anything that would disqualify somebody,” Mr. Zerbe said.
If the Senate Finance Committee considers a home office deduction a red flag, don’t you think it makes sense to assume that the IRS does too?
I knew that you would.
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