Survey: Politicians Pretty Much Suck At Paying Taxes

Following up on the multiple Obama nominees who’ve had tax troubles, Politico asked the 99 members of the Senate whether they’ve ever had mistakes on their tax returns or filed back taxes. Yes and yes.

Although only 56 senators responded to the survey, ten reported errors on their tax returns, and six have paid back taxes. Two of the senators that reported errors, Chris Dodd and Amy Klobuchar, had overpaid their taxes.

Our favorite response comes from the office of the reliably wacky Tom Coburn of Oklahoma:

After Dr. Coburn left the House, the House continued to pay him for three months. Apparently, they were very pleased with his service. However, because the payments were made in error Dr. Coburn returned all of the checks to Treasury. Yet, the House sent a W-2 to the IRS, but not to Coburn, reporting income that had been returned. After a long fight, the House and the IRS admitted their error and the IRS sent Coburn a corrected W-2. This is the government in charge of “stimulating” our economy.

(Photo: EricGjerde)

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