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Anthony C. Infanti, a professor of tax law at the University of Pittsburg law school, raised the issue in a blog called “Feminist Law Professors.” Mr. Infanti writes that if Governor Palin was not engaging in business while in Wasilla, but simply preferring to spend the nights there, then the per diem payments would be taxable income.
“If these are really just personal expenses paid by her employer, that sounds like taxable income to me,” Mr. Infanti wrote in his posting.
Ms. Palin received around $17,000 in per diem payments from the state for 312 nights she spent in her Wasilla home rather than the Governor’s mansion in her first 19 months in office. Per diem payments are a daily allowance to cover meals and lodging while on the state’s business.
Kim Garnero, the Alaska director of finance, has said that the state does not consider the payments to Ms. Palin to be taxable income at the federal level. But others, besides Mr. Infanti, differ. One of them is Robert S. McIntyre, director of the Citizens for Tax Justice, a labor-backed group whose calculations are widely respected by tax experts.
“It’s obvious that the per diems are taxable income. There’s no question it is taxable,’’ Mr. McIntyre said. “If it were not taxable, no one would pay taxes. People would convert their salary into a per diem and no one would pay taxes. You can deduct travel expenses when away from home. But you cannot deduct travel when you are at home.”
The ignorance of the angry left gets funnier every day...
John and Sarah are the team we need, unless you want your country destroyed by the socialist dumbo
If you know it for a fact and I prove this as an out of context claim, will you openly and to everyone here call yourself the dumbest person on the planet to never be listened to again because you are too stupid to speak? Do you support this to be true that much?
Just interested, I mean, you seem pretty sold on it already, but are you willing to bet on it?
Wow.
This is Interesting.
What evidential statement do you have contrary to the claim?
Nonetheless, the disclosure, which covers 2007 and 2008, lists her start date as governor as January 2006, though she didn’t take office until December. And it leaves blank a section for reporting gifts, though she reported to the state accepting more than $25,000 in gifts, including a $1,200 gold-nugget pin.
A campaign official, who did not want to be identified discussing Palin’s finances, said the gifts are “not her property—they are given to the office of governor, and not the governor's property.”
Neither the disclosure nor the taxes shed any light on Palin’s claiming state allowances for nights spent at home, the subject of a critical report in the Washington Post.
The campaign official said that “business travel is not income to the state employee,” so the per diems are not listed on the Palin’s taxes, nor are they are required to be reported on the federal candidate disclosure.
It is clear what a campaign official says but what does a tax attorney say? Everyone who cheats on their taxes says they didn't at first. Even their attorney says they didn't. Just because her campaign says Troopergate is not an issue doesn't make it not one or does it? If Sarah says she won the debate she won the debate who cares about polls!
Are you saying middle class people don't cheat on their taxes and she is middle class so she doesn't? If so I have a bridge to sell you that will take you somewhere.
I don't know what the State of Alaska allows, but I certainly cannot claim per diem for any time I spend in my home. If she received extra money from the state (legally or illegally) that doesn't meet the IRS definition of legal per diem, then she must claim it as income.
So, will the IRS take her to tax court for tax evasion?
Hey Tuborg, seems they underpaid their estimated taxes by $2000. A heinous crime that I'm sure no one else has ever done. I've been asked by the IRS to do the same on years that we have owed taxes - I usually ignore the request.
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Hmm...
