The latest issue of Money has a short chart designed to help you avoid the types of tax problems that either sank or hobbled a number of President Obama?s cabinet choices. Consider the following:
Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary.
What they [sic] did? Failed to pay enough Social Security and Medicare taxes.
Might happen if ? You?re self-employed.
Fair enough. Being self-employed can lead to issues of paying the appropriate level of Social Security and Medicare taxes.
But you have no good excuse if you are employed, if your employer structures your compensation in a way that prevents your tax burden from eating into your expected take-home pay, and if your employer warns you that you?re being paid additional salary with the expressed intent that you?ll use that additional salary to pay your tax bills. In other words, Geithner had no good excuse for his misdeeds.
