Sarah Palin Owes Income Taxes On $17,000 Of Per-Diem Payments
Before I get started let me use one quote from the news story below.
She (Sarah Palin) also charged the state a per diem on Thanksgiving Day 2007.
Gotta love those tax cutting fiscal conservatives.
Now lets get to the meat of this post.
The conservative blog site ”Boots and Sabers” rightfully took off after those in the Wisconsin State Legislature who run up huge amounts of money by collecting per diem. I have long felt that per diem under the dome has been severely abused. I commented on the blog about how per diem needs to be altered and better monitored. After all, I saw the abuse of the system up close. I used as my example former Wisconsin Republican State Senator Bob Welch who collected more than $13,000 in per diem in 1996, a non-budget bill year, when there were few session days, and most were back in their district campaigning. (By the way my concerns about Bob Welch were spelled out in a letter to the editor of his home town paper…..and it needled him so much he even responded the following week. Ka-Ching!)
It will now be interesting to see how many conservatives who understand that per diem is in need of reform in Wisconsin, and like to call Democrats out who collect lots of it, will react to Sarah Palin and her per diem mess in Alaska.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) owes income taxes on nearly $17,000 paid to her as travel reimbursements when she spent nights in her Wasilla residence, according to a state legal opinion that the payments were not legitimate business expenses, a state official said yesterday.
During her first 19 months in office, Palin charged the state $16,951 in “per diem” allowances for spending 312 nights in her home. The allowances were intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while she was traveling on state business.
The state this week reversed a policy that had treated the payments as legitimate business expenses under the Internal Revenue Code, said state administrator Annette Kreitzer. Payments to employees charging “per diem” expenses to stay in their own homes will be treated as income subject to taxes, Kreitzer said, and the state will update the employees’ W-2 forms.
Palin’s expenses were reported by The Washington Post last year after the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, named Palin as his running mate. The Post reviewed records from late 2006 through early August 2008, and the story prompted a review by state officials. The governor continued to seek the payments through the end of the year, according to the Anchorage Daily News, which first reported this week that she owed taxes on the payments.
Let me be clear, assuming what you say about Palin is true, I DO DENOUNCE HER!!! LETS INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE HER IF SHE HAS BROKEN THE LAW!
Personally, I think it is becomming increasingly obvious that PALIN IS NOT THE ONE TO CARRY THE CONSERFVATIVE MESSAGE FORWARD!
However, if the problem is that politicians and government servants are cheating the system, that is one thing. If the point is that Palin, a conservative, is the problem then we have a different story. Perhaps you could point to the post where you similarly denounce one of the democrat per-diem or tax cheat. I looked, but could not locate it.
Perhaps I am wrong. I read this blog because it is the best of the Liberal blogs in wisconsin. I’m unfamiliar with your stories and letters to the editor, but I have been reading C.P. for almost three years, I think.
IF I am wrong, I do apologize. Go ahead and restore some of my faith.
Dash…
Let us read carefully…….
During her first 19 months in office, Palin charged the state $16,951 in “per diem” allowances for spending 312 nights in her home. The allowances were intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while she was traveling on state business.
What part of per diem and its correct use do you not understand? Or is fleecing the government OK if you are a conservative?
If Palin had not taken the per diem in the fashion she did, she would not need to pay taxes on it, following the change in making such money taxable.
As was said about Kate Grahman….a woman I loved and admired and still do…..it looks like the same can be said of Palin, “she got her tits in a wringer”
all yous missed this
Palin also previously charged the state for having her children travel with her — amounting to $21,012 for her three daughters’ 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office through last fall. She also charged for hotel rooms for the girls in some cases
this on ap story
Patrick, the state reversed it’s policy. She didn’t cheat on the per diem. Take your partisan glasses off.
Here is a little cartoon I created to compare Palin to Obama, Biden, and Pelosi:
http://www.hootervillegazette.com
scroll down to the bottom to see the cartoon.
Patrick,
If you can take your partisan glasses off, and read the post again, you will see that this was about per diem. The taxes are a consequence of cheating on the per diem. Do you think her shame at getting caught was the reason she decided not to be at the NGA this weekend in D.C.?
And if you have any conservative spine, other than spin, you too will denounce this pratice. And Ms. Palin.
My per diem ‘soap box’ goes back to 1987 and continues to the present. I have the news stories and letters to the editor to prove it. I take second place to no one, and find it rich that you have the evidence to read and know what your prized V.P. nominee did, the same one who was the most righteous about spending and fiscal matters and then claims per diem on THANKSGIVING while AT HER HOME and you call me a “Hypocrite”…….
What? A democrat shocked that someone didn’t pay taxes? Did I miss your outraged post on Geitner? Hypocrite.
Hey now Marion…I grew up in Sheboygan County. At least the Sheboygan in WI has an interesting Legend as to how the name came to be:
There are several variations to the story but it revolves around a Native American Chief’s wife giving birth. After the birth, the announcement was made in English as “She Boy Again” and thus Sheboygan as a name was born.
As a side-note: I would not wish the name on any child, Palin’s or otherwise.
My newspaper reported the amount in excess of $18,000 but what’s a thousand here and there between “friends”.
Also cute story:
she named her daughter [Bristol] after the town in Conn.because she thought it unusual from the article she was reading. Good thing she wasn’t reading about the other town…Sheboygan.
I read this story on several conservative blogs myself today. I’ve thrown in the towel on continuing to defend her and beg that she doesn’t think about running for President in 2012.
OY!!!