Some Senate Press Offices Think Politico Tax Info Request = A Threat

By GottaLaff

This e-mail from Politico caused a few Senators to reach for their Xanax. Now what would make them so jumpy:

From: FBDC DELETED NAME
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 10:12 AM
To:
Subject: Tax Story

Hey XXX,

We're doing a story about how all 100 senators prepare their taxes, and we're putting together a chart of how everyone responded and whether people didn't respond. My editors want to start posting answers this weekend, so we'd like answers by end of the day Friday, if possible.

You may recall that we did something similar last year in asking all 100 senators about their mortgages. Here's just one story from that series. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11353.html

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Here are the questions:

1. Do you prepare your own taxes?
2. If not, who does?
3. Have you or the IRS ever discovered an error on a tax return you've filed?
4. Have you ever paid back taxes?
5. If the answer to either 3 or 4 is yes, please explain.

NAME DELETED BY FBDC

Politico

Wow. Scary, huh?

The email says that Politico will use the information for a database they plan to construct and write about.

An FBDC source says "the e-mail has created a raging controversy among the Senate press offices over whether to respond or not. Many staffers believe it is meant to intimidate each office into complying."

More details here.

There's an awful lot of controversy over tax records these days. It's gotten to the point where the very word sends chills up and down the spines of public officials. Maybe someone should invent a vaccine. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of investigation.