Treasury Nominee Under Tax Scrutiny To Get Hearing
By Martin Vaughan, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Senate Finance Committee plans to hold a hearing
on a top Treasury Department nominee, after months of delay and ten rounds of
questioning about her personal tax returns.
The nominee for undersecretary for international affairs, Lael Brainard, is
the latest in a string of President Barack Obama's nominees to face questions
about tax errors.
Brainard paid property taxes late on a Rappahannock County, Va., home in 2005,
2006, 2007 and 2008 incurring $1,401.09 in interest and penalties, according to
a Senate Finance panel staff report released Wednesday. She also was late on $
485 in personal property taxes owed for 2007 on a Dodge pick-up truck.
Brainard had paid all those taxes and penalties, with the exception of taxes
owed for 2008, by the time she was nominated on March 23 of this year. The
amounts of taxes she paid late are much smaller than those involved in the
controversies surrounding the cabinet nominations of Sen. Tom Daschle (D., S.D.)
earlier this year, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
But Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) said "the lack of candor, accuracy and
timeliness [by Brainard] in addressing the issues has been discouraging."
Grassley will not make a decision about whether to support Brainard's nomination
until after the hearing, which hasn't yet been scheduled.
Brainard had to amend a response to the Finance panel's questionnaire three
times as committee investigators uncovered details about late property tax
payments.
"Ms. Brainard was never advised by committee staff that she owes any
additional taxes or asked to amend her returns," said Andrew Williams, a
Treasury Department spokesman. "There is nothing in this report that calls into
question her qualifications or ability to serve in this position."
Brainard's husband, Kurt Campbell, was confirmed by the Senate June 25 as
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. But Campbell's
nomination went through the Senate Foreign Relations panel, and did not face the
tough scrutiny of personal tax affairs that has become a hallmark of the Finance
Committee vetting process.
During the panel's 6-month long scrutiny of Brainard, committee staff grilled
her about the appropriateness of a home-office deduction Brainard claimed for
her District of Columbia home.
From 2005 to 2007, Brainard claimed one-sixth of household expenses as a home-
office deduction, deducting a total of $42,312 during that time. Committee staff
questioned how she had arrived at that percentage, and after weeks of back-and-
forth, Brainard said she had cut the size of that deduction in half--to one-
twelfth of household expenses--for 2008.
A Senate Finance aide said staff reached no conclusion as to whether the
deduction she claimed was appropriate, because the information submitted by the
nominee was unclear.
-By Martin Vaughan, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9244; martin.vaughan@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-18-091643ET
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