State reviewing per diem payments to Palin
Published Tuesday, October 7, 2008
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Gov. Sarah Palin's practice of charging the state when she stays in her home must be reviewed to determine if she should pay taxes on the payments, state Finance Director Kim Garnero said Tuesday.
Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, released two years' worth of tax returns last week that did not list the per diem payments she received since becoming Alaska governor in December 2006. She collected nearly $17,000 during that period for 312 nights spent in her Wasilla home about an hour's drive from Anchorage, according to state travel records.
Palin listed 157 days spent in Anchorage during 2007 on her travel forms. Garnero said Palin's work place as governor is considered to be Juneau, so she filed for the per diem payments when she stayed at her home in Wasilla.
But state officials consider changing an employee's work station when they spend most of their time in another area, she said. That review will occur for Palin, Garnero said, which may require Palin to report future per diem payments as income.
"That's something we need to confer with the governor's office on," said Garnero, who said she was not aware of the number of days Palin spent working in Anchorage.
A typical work year for most employees is 260 days in a calendar year, but Garnero said the governor's staff told her Tuesday that her work year is considered 365 days because she is on call around the clock. That would mean Palin spent about 43 percent of last year working in Anchorage, and would allow the governor to continue receiving per diem payments that aren't taxed when she stays at her home, Garnero said.
The final decision likely will be made by the Internal Revenue Service, said Allen Bingham, an Anchorage accountant and member of the Alaska Society of Certified Public Accountants' taxation committee. IRS officials could determine that Palin owes taxes on past and future per diem payments, Bingham said.
Bingham said Palin's situation is unusual because she claimed such a large number of days working away from Juneau, something that would typically raise red flags when considering whether the per diem should be considered income.
"It's certainly one of those things that some of us have raised our eyebrows about," he said.
Palin released her tax returns last week, which revealed that she and her husband underpaid their estimated taxes with an April extension and likely will owe interest. The per diem payments were not included as income in those returns.
A spokeswoman for Palin did not immediately return a telephone call or e-mail. However, the Palins had asked Washington, D.C., lawyer Roger Olsen to review their tax returns before they made them public last week. Olsen, who worked in the Reagan administration's Department of Justice's tax division as an assistant attorney general, wrote that Palin's per diem payments were considered properly as reimbursements that should not be taxed because the state considered Juneau to be her place of business.
"No special consideration was ever given to Governor Palin, notwithstanding that she was the governor of Alaska," Olsen wrote in a three-page letter outlining his review of the family's tax returns.
Community Discussion
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Collecting per diem for staying at her own home may be legal, but it sure seems unethical. She is taking advantage of the system at our expense. The legislature needs to fix this loophole.
Unfortunately, the state is accountable for every person who travel under their administration, by auditors and has to be accountable for every penny. You can look at this situation in two ways, we are only paying her $44.00 per day for her to stay in her own home, I would be willing to bet it costs' her more than that to stay in Juneau when she is there. Yes that is a choice she made when she was elected, but in my opinion she is by far the best governor we have had, so it might cost us a little but at least we know where she stands, and hasn't let us down. It is a catch 22 we will be paying either way, would you prefer to pay for her to live in Juneau, where the cost of living is much higher?
The point is that she charged Alaskans extra money to live in her own home! Legal or not, it is unethical. It is commonplace of the typical arrogant politician that they believe they deserve such ridiculous and excessive perks. Sarah Palin claims to be different. Instead she's just like Frank Murkowski except younger and wears lipstick and a skirt.
Snoflakes: I would vastly prefer her to be in Juneau, where the State's business is supposed to be conducted.
Also, she may not have let YOU down, but she sure as heck has let me down.
The tax thing is really just a side issue, because she may have actually not met her legal obligation. Apparently it was legal, but certainly NOT ethical and NOT consistent with her phony reformer issue, for her to charge the state $17,000 for living at home!
Newsflash for Sarah Palin: Your "per diem" for living at home is called your SALARY! You aren't supposed to take another one!
I am all for Sarah Palin but I have to agree collecting per diem while in your own home is not right. This is the kind of thing that makes me doubt she is anything more then another good old boy politician.
Pat
I hope her older kids were getting paid per diem while they were living in the governor's mansion... ALONE!
Why did Palin hire an Outside attorney to review her Alaska tax issues? Don't Alaskans pay Attorney General Talis Colberg to represent our Governor on legal matters? Why did she hire a Beltway insider? I thought her campaign was all about not playing Beltway politics.
Oh, c'mon guys! It's OK if a Republican does it!
I prefer leaders who spend more time at work than vacationing at home.
What about Palin not hiring a cook or using a state car in Juneau? What past governors did this? I like Palin because she has the state democrats and republicans mad at her. We should pay attention. Your district representative puts his/her constiuents behind their party caucus. Party comes first....we come last. Enough Palin bashing already. Get a life!
Give it a rest. Sarah Palin is a great governor, she has done great things for our state and us Alaskan, and she is going to be a great vice president and even greater president. We are paying her to ive anywhere she is living, bet it in the valley, or capital. if it costs us less for her per diem to live at home than it would to live in juneau then that is great, it is saving us money. it is not collecting a second salary, it is called saving money. and it is now 2008, there are things called notebook computers, internet, fax, phone, fedex, and u.s. mail. in this day and age, you can do work in almost anywhere in the world. it also saves us money having her in the valley than in juneau because she can probably be more productive by having easier access to thing which needs to be barged or flown in to juneau. it is also a proven fact that MOST employees who are given the freedom and ability to do their work at home or other places outside their stuffy, noisey, distraction filled office are more productive, healthier, more efficient and produce better quality of work. I, as an Alaskan, think it is ethical, moral, cost effective and more productive for her to get a per deim for working from home.
STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR!
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