The IRS is giving a hard time to Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker:
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker had to fight the IRS to allow him to claim the portion of his salary he gives back to the county as a charitable donation, Walker says.
Walker gave back $60,000 a year of his $129,000 salary for each of his first six years in office, to fulfill a 2002 campaign pledge. In 2005, the IRS questioned whether his county donations were actually political donations, Walker said in an interview. He took the charitable donation deduction as a way to offset the income taxes he would otherwise pay on the money he gives back, Walker said.
He filed an appeal with the U.S. Tax Court, providing a letter from county Treasurer Dan Diliberti stating that Walker’s $60k was going into the county’s coffers, not some campaign account. The IRS then backed off, Walker said.
He’s now cutting his give-back to $10,000 a year. His donations stopped in April, following his re-election but will resume soon with bi-weekly payments that add up to $10,000, Diliberti said.