By Stacie Clifford Kitts, CPA

Failure to properly calculate and pay income tax appears to be a job requirement of the Obama administration. In addition to Nancy, Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary paid $43,000 in back taxes and interest claiming that he accidentally forgot to the pay the proper amount of payroll taxes on his self-employment income. And, Tom Daschle, the former Senator Majority Leader and nominee for secretary of health recently paid more than $100,000 to the IRS for back taxes and interest related to the use of a car and driver lent to him by a wealthy Democratic friend.

Although I am not surprised, it does make me wonder who is preparing these tax returns. Just who are our lawmakers relying on to advise them as to the proper application of the laws that they themselves created. Mind boggling.

Okay, in defense of the accountants, I understand that some tax laws can be hard to understand. And I don’t expect everyone to know the intricacies of every rule, or even the complete intricacies of their clients lives, but come on. Self employment taxes? Screwing that up is the equivalent of not being able to add 2 + 2. Which equals 4 by the way if Mr. Geithner happens to stumble onto this blog.

Although it appears that Mr. Geithner tried to blame Turbo Tax, the tax preparation software he used for the mistake on his self prepared tax return, Turbo Tax has insisted that the problem is not with their software. Good try though Timmy.

Well, that’s it, I guess I finally know why I haven’t been nominated to any posts in the Obama administration. I don’t have the right qualifications. That is, I have been properly calculating and paying my income tax.

But I would like to take this opportunity to officially offer my services to the Obama administration and to any other lawmaker who would like to step it up and file his or her tax returns properly.