Obama's nomination woes continue

[Naked Gents Rut]

Ron Kirk, nominated as U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama administration, owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade and has agreed to make his payments, the Senate Finance Committee said Monday.

The committee said the taxes arise from Kirk's handling of speaking fees that he donated to his alma mater, and for his deduction of the full cost of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team.

The disclosure made the former Dallas mayor the latest in a string of top-level Obama administration appointees found to have underpaid their taxes, following Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle, who withdrew as candidate for Health and Human Services secretary. Nancy Killefer, Obama's pick for chief performance officer, also bowed out amid tax problems.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090302/ap_on_go_pr_wh/kirk_taxes_7

[Imran Siddiqui]

[Naked Gents Rut]

I still can't think of anything funny to say about this. I'm just amazed that we're only a month and change into the Hopenchange era and it's already become completely unremarkable for a President to appoint a tax cheat to higher office.

[Kuciwalker]

[DanS]

He might be dinged. Trade Rep isn't an important enough office to appoint a tax cheat.

[Winston]

[Zkribbler]

The committee said the taxes arise from Kirk's handling of speaking fees that he donated to his alma mater ...

He donated his speaking fees, and now he owes taxes on them???

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, it's a gift. Ever hear of the gift tax?

[Zkribbler]

Yeah, it's a gift. Ever hear of the gift tax?

No, but per Wikipedia:

There are two levels of exemption from the gift tax. First, transfers of a present interest up to (as of 2009) $13,000 per person per year are not subject to the tax.

I never give more than $13,000 to anybody, so I'm not in trouble.

[Darius871]

No

You're a lawyer and the gift tax doesn't ring a bell? How could an estate tax function without a gift tax to go with it?

[Theben]

If he claims innocence based on the funds being donated, then he's incompetent and needs to be cast out. Out I say!

[DanS]

You're a lawyer and the gift tax doesn't ring a bell? How could an estate tax function without a gift tax to go with it?

Zkrib's not a lawyer, is he?

[Lefty Scaevola]

He donated his speaking fees, and now he owes taxes on them???

You only get a deduction for a part of charitable donations. The dip**** was likely tried to assign them an not report them at all, rather than reporting them as income and claiming a charitable deduction.
Gift tax is irrelevant here. Qualifying charitable donations are exempt from the unified estate and gift tax, so you do not even have to get to the annual exemption. Colleges usually qualify as section 501(c)3 charities.
For the tickets, only the 50% times the portion of them and their cost used to advance an income producing business could be a deduction, not any part of them used for personal use.

[DinoDoc]

No tax problems on this choice so far.

Freeman Already Under Investigation
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that the Inspector General at the Office of National Intelligence has already begun his investigation into Chas Freeman's financial ties to Saudi Arabia and China. Eli Lake reports today in an extremely thorough piece for the Washington Times that those ties "could oblige [Freeman] to recuse himself from some matters regarding China as well as Myanmar." Freeman might also be asked to recuse himself from matters involving the Saudis, who largely underwrote his Middle East Policy Council.

Perhaps the most stunning revelation in Lake's report is that the White House never vetted Freeman. The White House was never even made aware of Blair's pick to head the National Intelligence Council according to spokesman Wendy Morigi. "The director did not seek the White House's approval," Morigi said. She added that "In addition to his formal background security investigation, we expect that the White House will undertake the typical vetting associated with senior administration assignments." This would explain why Robert Gibbs pleaded ignorance of the whole matter when questioned by Jake Tapper earlier this week about Freeman's financial ties and controversial views.

It's not clear that Freeman has even passed the background checks and received the security clearances necessary to hold the post he's been offered, but what does seem clear is that were he not a political appointee, Freeman would struggle to obtain the necessary clearances. His financial ties to unsavory regimes are too many and too large. Also, as the editors at the Washington Times write today in a piece tied to Lake's reporting, "Freeman would not enjoy the trust of our key allies in the Middle East and Asia." There are very real concerns that his appointment could stymie the flow of intelligence between the United States and states like Israel and Taiwan.

Lake also points out the undeniable hypocrisy of an Obama administration appointment with such close ties to CNOOC, the Chinese state-owned oil company. Before the election, the Obama campaign targeted Charlie Black, a senior adviser to the McCain campaign, for taking on CNOOC as a client. It was the firm's investments in Iran that prompted a press release titled "What McCain Won't Tell You About Iran" and stated that "many of his top advisors lobbied for companies doing business with Iran or otherwise have a vested interest in Iran." That company was CNOOC and at the time Chas Freeman was serving on its international advisory board. Just last year, with Freeman still serving on that board, the Treasury Department issued sanctions on Burma that implicated CNOOC for its links to individuals involved in drug trafficking and clashes with workers in that country. And in 2007, CNOOC's chief financial officer responded to calls for a boycott of Burma military junta by telling the Wall Street Journal the firm would increase its investments because, "If we pull out, then we can't successfully invest our money in terms of exploration success."

So far the Washington Post and the New York Times have failed to run a single news story on the controversy surrounding Freeman's appointment to a key intelligence post. The AP is busy writing about Sasha and Malia's new swing set. Perhaps an official investigation, launched with bipartisan support in Congress and involving a steaming pile of political hypocrisy, will be enough to warrant a report.

So what do you imagine the call between Dennis Blair and Rahm Emanuel was like when Rahm finally learned of this appointment and what kind of embarassment it was going to cause the White House?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/03/freeman_already_under_investig.asp

[Zkribbler]

You're a lawyer and the gift tax doesn't ring a bell? How could an estate tax function without a gift tax to go with it?

I haven't studied or practiced tax law or estate planning. I'm an underpaid government attorney, so I never have to worry about dealing with the amounts of money necessary to get myself into trouble.