Gomez’ Flawed Tax Returns Change the Picture in Race for CD 53 Seat
Oh, Georgette Gomez. I voted for you and now I’m sorry.
As part of your campaign to represent the 53rd Congressional District, you released your tax returns, and made a big deal about how many days it took for Sara Jacobs to release hers.
It’s time honored political ploy to call attention to an opponent's finances -- in this case Jacobs’ wealth was the target.
Shouldn’t somebody have looked at Gomez’ returns before offering them up as a virtuous statement? Should Gomez have given them at least a cursory glance before signing off on her tax preparer’s work?
From the front page at the Union-Tribune:
San Diego City Council President and Congressional candidate Georgette Gómez reported no salary on her federal tax filing in 2017 despite earning more than $90,000 from her job on the council, according to her personal return.
The discrepancy is one of several errors or omissions noted by The San Diego Union-Tribune during a review of the councilwoman’s tax filings for 2017, 2018 and 2019 compared to other publicly available information.
Losing a whole year’s salary is such a bonehead move that I’m sure it must have been a mistake, right? If we’re talking mistakes, there sure seem to be a lot of them.
What happened to the W-2? Why would you claim a deduction for self paid health insurance premiums when the City of San Diego includes them as a benefit? Why is there a difference between your mandatory disclosures to the Federal Election Commission and the IRS? How is it that the nearly $100,000 in mistakes is all in your favor?
The Gomez campaign did release a statement:
You may have seen a story about my accountant’s errors on my taxes. Like most people, I trusted my accountant to file my taxes accurately and I was shocked to find out that my 2017 returns were not properly filed. My accountant has taken responsibility for the errors. But I, too, take responsibility and I’ve filed a corrected return and paid the back taxes.
The sad part of this is the “mistakes” chronicled in the UT’s reporting covered three years, not just 2017--which is admittedly where the bulk of the missing monies were found.
I’ve seen this “my accountant ate my homework” in other campaigns and never found it to be a satisfactory answer.
If Gomez’s accountant is so bad, why didn’t she name the person, so other members of the public would be aware?
Count on me as disappointed. This sort of thing is the one disadvantage about voting early.
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