Tax Clouds on the Horizon for the Palins?

Paul Caron at TaxProf cites Jack Bogdanski and Bryan Camp as finding several potential problems in the recently released tax returns of Todd and Sarah Palin, including a travel allowance for the "first dude" and their children and a deduction for Todd's snow racing. Camp also believed that there was some risk for a negligence penalty and said that Alaska's failure to include the allowance in Sarah's W-2 would not necessarily save the Palin's from this penalty. Caron and Camp also both criticized an opinion letter by tax attorney Roger Olson on the Palin's returns.

There likely is more heft to the Bogdanski/Camp criticism of the Palin tax returns than has been true of many of the recent media political comments on Sarah, though no one is talking fraud and even a negligence penalty, in my mind, is not a sure thing. The key issue here--check your tax return before sending it in, even if prepared by a paid preparer.