41 Obama White House aides owe the IRS $831,000 in back taxes -- and they're not alone

LA Times ^ | 9/10/2010 | Andrew Malcom

[Qbert]

Over the years a lot of suspicion has built up across the country about Washington and its population of opportunistic transients coming to see themselves as a special kind of person, somehow above average working Americans who don't work down in that former swamp.

Well, finally, an end to all those undocumented doubts. Thanks to some diligent digging by the Washington Post, those suspicions can at last be put to rest.

They're correct. Accurate. Dead-on. Laser-guided. On target. Bingo-bango. As clear as it's always seemed to those Americans who don't feel special entitlements and do meet their government obligations.

We now know that federal employees across the nation owe fully $1 billion in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

As in, 1,000 times one million dollars. All this political jabber about giving middle-class ...

... Americans a tax cut. Thousands of feds have been giving themselves one all along -- unofficially. And these tax scofflaws include more than three dozen folks who work for the president with that newly decorated Oval Office.

The Post's T.W. Farnum did some research and found that out of the total sum, just 638 workers on Capitol Hill owe the IRS $9.3 million in back taxes. As in, overdue. The IRS gets stiffed by the legislative body that controls its budget. How Washington works.

[Snip]

Privacy laws prevent release of individual tax delinquents' names. But we do know that as of the end of 2009, 41 people inside Obama's very own White House owe the government they're allegedly running a total of $831,055 in back taxes. That would cover a lot of special chocolate desserts in the White House Mess.

[Qbert]

Ah, so this is why the Dems have no problems letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the 'wealthy'...because they don't pay their taxes anyways...

[Genoa]

Hey, no paychecks for these slugs until they are paid up and current with the tax man.

[mom4melody]

I don’t understand this....at my agency you get in trouble if you owe back taxes.

[Mouton]

Over 20K apiece for the bums in the whitehut who owe taxes. That seems like quite a sum. Seemingly, there is a withholding problem there...how about some penalties and interest on top of the money owed, for starters. Next up, who is the employer? Underwithholding by the POS in charge means he has some liability too.

[hoosiermama]

Ah, so this is why the Dems have no problems letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the 'wealthy'...because they don't pay their taxes anyways...

[immadashell]

I don’t understand this....at my agency you get in trouble if you owe back taxes.

Which agency might that be?...The Republican National Committee maybe?lol

[onyx]

Oh wow!

[Blue Turtle]

I’m sure the press will discuss this with the President at today’s conference...11am.

[AlexW]

“Hey, no paychecks for these slugs until they are paid up and current with the tax man.”

Comrade, you do not understand.
These are important servants of our dear leader.
One does not question the dear leader or his staff.

Perhaps you need a few months off...in a nice reeducation camp.

[concerned about politics]

What? We're expecting the left to spend THEIR OWN money on their garbage policies? No way! That's what the unwashed tax slaves are for.
So, get over it and get back to work you slackers. Oboma wants more of your money.

[penelopesire]

I was just fixing to ping the posse to this too..lol. The WP article says that the republicans tried to pass a bill that fed employees not paying taxes be fired but couldn’t get any dem co-sponsers or support for the bill. Go figure.

They are all robbing us blind! We pay our taxes..WHY CAN’T THEY?

[azishot]

Wasn’t it Leona Helmsley that said that taxes are for “little people”? I must be very little...

[Will88]

My first question is: is their government pay being garnished for back taxes, and if not, why not? (Not to mention the fact that they should be kicked out of their government jobs onto their asses, if their back tax liability has been established as correct).

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

I am waiting for the press to ask Obama about this today...

Bwaahahahahahahahahahahah yeah RIGHT!

[Mr. Bird]

This is crazy. The highest paying WH job pays in the mid 100's, I believe, and those are the most senior advisors. My guess is that the average pay for a "White House Aide" is probably somewhere in the $60k-80k range. In 2009, to have a tax liability of $20,268 (the average of the 41 aides), taxable income is $93k. And that is for single filers. Married filers would have taxable income over $100k.

Are they not even withholding?

[bert]

Where did Wapo dig? how do they know?

I’m sceptical

[SparkyBass]

[ichabod1]

I want the names.

[KJC1]

Me too.

[kcvl]

Why doesn’t it come out of their checks? I guarantee you that if any of us owed it they would find a way to collect (plus penalty & interest)!