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Alaska reviewing per diem payments to Palin

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-08 10:51

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- 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.

Republican vice-presidential candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin, gestures with one of of her sign before a campaign speech at Minges Coliseum on the campus of East Carolina University Tuesday Oct. 7, 2008, in Greenville, N.C. [Agencies]

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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 has relied on the state's calculation of her taxable income, reported in her annual income statements, said Roger Olsen, a Washington, D.C., tax lawyer asked by the Palins to review their tax returns before they were made public last week.

"The income tax aspects of fringe benefits are complex and highly technical, and not subject to second-guessing by laymen," Olsen wrote in a three-page letter outlining his review of the returns.

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, most times the full $60 a day, when she worked in her Anchorage office and stayed at her Wasilla home.

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.

State rules for employees who receive a large amount of per diem payments are difficult to apply to Palin because she has no supervisor monitoring how long she works at another state office, Garnero said.

A typical work year for most employees is 260 days, 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 state review will not consider whether Palin should report past per diem payments as income. "In the past, we've gone prospective. We've never gone retroactive" when reviewing per diem paid to state employees, 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, he 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.

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