As explained at greater length
here, Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin understated her taxable income by at least $43,000, and quite possibly, by $52,000. Furthermore, the attorney who wrote an opinion letter backing up her tax return (which was prepared by H&R Block) probably violated the professional ethics obligations of tax attorneys in doing so.
5 comments:
I don't care for pro-war neocons either, but from what I understand, this implicates the tax code more than Sarah Palin.
From what I understand from Bryan Camp's paper
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1279105
if Alaska had paid for Todd and children's travel directly rather than through per deim, the expense would be tax-free.
This strikes me as a tax hiccup rather than egregious tax fraud.
But that may be because as a social conservative, I place high value on families staying together, including on business travel, and feel that such travel should somehow be tax-free.
I carefully avoided saying that Palin cheated, and instead merely noted that she was wrong in a big dollar amount. Honestly, though, someone in her position has no business going to H&R Block, and the existence of an opinion letter suggests that she was well aware of the problem.
Roger Olsen's letter was dated Sep. 30, 2008 -- no doubt triggered by Palin's candidacy and probably a proactive measure by the McCain campaign prior to the release of Palin's tax returns.
Of all the things to call Palin on the carpet for, I don't think this is one of them.
The cover up is often as serious as the crime.
I think that it is amazing how we can make so much ado about nothing while overlooking the other candidate whose senate candidacy was launched at the home of his friend the terrorist who participated in bombings on American soil. William Ayers is a dangerous individual and Barak's association with him really speaks to his lack of judgement, but I guess taking your taxes to H&R Block is a much more serious case of poor judgement.
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