WASHINGTON (AP) — Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding “unintentional errors” — the latest tax troubles for an Obama administration nominee. The Kansas governor explained the changes to senators in a letter dated Tuesday that the administration released. She said they involved charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses. Sebelius said she filed the amended returns as soon as the errors were discovered by an accountant she hired to scrub her taxes in preparation for her confirmation hearings. She and her husband, Gary, a federal magistrate judge in Kansas, paid a total of $7,040 in back taxes and $878 in interest to amend returns from 2005-2007. Asked by The Associated Press to comment on the amended tax returns as she left a Capitol Hill restaurant Tuesday night, Sebelius said, “We put out a statement and the statement speaks for itself.” Several Obama administration nominees have run into tax troubles, notably the president’s first nominee for HHS secretary, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle. He withdrew from consideration while apologizing for failing to pay $140,000 in taxes and interest. Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., quickly issued a statement supporting Sebelius.
