Posted on 02/18/2009 4:17:07 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Alaska officials on Wednesday ruled that Alaska governor and former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin must pay back taxes to the IRS.
The exact amount the governor must pay is not yet known, but the Associated Press estimates she owes taxes on more than $17,000 in per-diem expenses.
State employees who live more than 50 miles away from Alaska's capital, Juneau, are entitled to state aid in the form of per-diem payments. Juneau is approximately 600 miles from Palin's home town of Wasilla, making the governor eligible for the payments.
But before she accepted the vice presidential nomination, Palin charged the state for over 300 nights spent in her Wasilla home, not the governor's mansion in Juneau. Her expenses usually amounted to $60 per day.
On Wednesday, Alaska state officials decided that the per-diem expenses should be counted as taxable income. Palin's spokesman, Bill McAllister, said the governor would pay the taxes.
You are so right, the dems can’t resist a slam. It isn’t “back taxes” if you just decided today they are due.
What's wrong with that? Team Obama did that during the whole Blago scandal...
"We've audited ourselves and determined no inappropriate communication with Blagojevich took place. Thank you."
I doubt you'll see Governor Palin letting something like this slide 16 years like that Commie over at Labor Department did.
Nothing like Leftwingtards to demand taxes out of others, and then to not pay their own.
No kidding!
This is “last year” which all Americans have until April 15th to pay!
Nothing “back” about it.
She asked for the review, and STILL they try to paint her with their own broad brush.
Desperate desperate fools they are. Their constant smearing this woman just shows the fear they have of her. Notice they don’t attack Mark Sanford or Bobby Jindal. Their focus is on Sarah Palin for a reason
But it will now. I am sure there are pro-Palin operatives lurking around IRS ready to pounce on perdiem pay for Alaskan legislative types.
Well it’s been a long time since I took tax accounting... but I don’t see how anybody can find per diem to be “income”. It just simply is not. It is in the same class as a reimbursement of expenses.
Tax collectors are in cohoots!
Must be why she DIDN'T.
Because of the vast distances involved, and the climate, there are really a lot of different ways to look at the way perdiem is, or should be handled in Alaska.
Gov. Palin only did what Democrats do, and for a lower amount than most.
I doubt the dems actually won this election, and I will always believe ACORN stole it. Palin can win in four years, and they know it now that the Obama truth is out. I like Sanford but doubt he could muster the excitement Palin can from the base...Jingal no way, although he may be great governor. She needs to be so careful, these buzzheads will be watching her for next four yrs for a mistake.
Unfortunately that is how unspent per diem works you end up paying taxes on it. She could probably show receipts to prove that most of it was spent but will not do so and pay the extra just to be above reproach unlike so many D’s. We are talking about the just closed tax year and it is not yet past the April 15 deadline for filing so the taxes are not overdue. The other thing about per diem is they will not pay for your meals if they exceed the allowance that you would claim as an unreimbursed business expense. Have traveled and gotten $28 per diem and spent $45 on dinner alone but it was an excellent dinner and well worth the extra money.
I wouldn't blame if she did just that. She's tough, but you know this level of petty crap has got to hurt.
I hope you can find some evidence that Sarah asked the commission to look at this...the LAMESTREAM MEDIA will try and use this to make Hussein’s idiots look good.
Plus, I work with flaming liberals who will be mentioning this tomorrow....and I would LOVE to be able to give them some shot back.
Sarah is an honest, good woman, and it pisses me off to no end the hacks in the media keep targeting her for destruction.
Generally, you don’t have to pay taxes on Per diem.
With USPS we send management and analytical types all over the country on detail all the time. While in those jobs they also travel. The result is you have someone with a residence in one town (the domicile), a rental apartment in another town (for the convenience of the agency) and a regular series of hotel bills in other towns while on travel from the second site.
The rules for this are very complex. In fact, as I was retiring the rules had gotten so complex the directions were to rely strictly on what the computer program said BUT save all your perdiem records just in case someone at IRS decided that you owed taxes.
In a detailed discussion of the problem it was discovered that IRS experts in consultation with USPS accountants had determined that there were faults in federal tax law, tax court decisions, Supreme court decisions, and individual auditor instructions, so they couldn't exactly say what was real and what wasn't.
I'm happy to see the state of Alaska has some geniuses who've figured it all out. At the same time I have some folks to call I know over at IRS (they know who they are) with lists of names to check!
Bwahahahaha!
Changed the rules this week and the obamedia tries to make it sound like she was avoiding taxes. They fear her.
Pray for America, Our Troops and Gov Palin
Exactly. Hope some of those who made this determination are themselves the recipients of the per diem allowance.
Don’t count on it.
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