The Tax Man Cometh

Three weeks ago I wrote the following about a Charles Schumer appearance on MTP:

Another Palin Question

Charles Schumer today listed three things Sarah Palin needed to answer to. The thing that he mentioned that I haven't heard before was that she needed to release her tax returns and mentioned the $17,000 worth of per diem she received.

He doesn't mention something that specific on Meet the Press without an idea there is something there.

Ever since that day I have eagerly awaited the release of her taxes. Guess what day today is? That's right,,,at 4pm today Sarah Palin's taxes were released and she did infact pay taxes on about $3300 worth of per diem out of the $17,000 that she billed the state over 19 months. That would mean of the 319 times she billed the sate for dinner in her own house, only 55 times last year and 264 times this year. Make sense? no. That means her per diem last year was probably a lot higher. Let's say proportionately $10,000 of this was last year and $7000 this year. Does that mean she didn't pay taxes on $7000 worth of per diem?

On another line of her taxes she claims to have received $2500 worth of gifts. Only problem with that is that she received over $25000 in gifts over 17 months. While the Post doesn't tell hom much of that was received this year vs last year or how much was kept for personal use. It does beg the question.

One last oddity. The extension was filed on 9/3/2008. The day Sarah gave her speech at the convention.

Could it all be legit??? Possibly. But the late Friday release makes it all even more suspicious.

Update: the Palin's released a Tax Attorney's letter stating his reasons why it is not taxable. Rebuttal coming.

Update 2: The Caucus weighs in with their opinion.

At the very least this is questionable and is now being picked up by a few news sites. We will see if it has legs.