Over the weekend President Obama announced he would bypass a vacationing Senate and name 15 people to key administration jobs. The move was his first use of the political tool known as recess appointments.
As Jay Heflin, of The Hill.com explains, two of these appointments will serve take on tax-related duties. The first, Jeffrey Goldstein is the interim Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at Treasury.
During his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking Republican Chuck Grassley (Iowa) both scrutinized Goldstein's role in setting up "blocker" corporations, a legal yet highly suspect type of tax shelter.
Goldstein was compensated for his effort by carried interest, another highly controvserial topic since payments are taxed as capital gains, which is much lower than ordinary income tax rates.
Obama also named Michael Mundaca to be interim Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at Treasury.