The AP and the IRS

For the first time I am worried about taxes. My concern is not that the Internal Revenue Service will audit me or place a lien on my ramen stash. My concern is that years from now the press will find that I entered the sales tax on Amazon purchases on the wrong line and therefore conclude that I’m unqualified to advise the government on economic matters. My 1098-T form is no morass of complexity, but the numbers on it are counterintuitive. If my university has erred, the IRS probably would understand, but recent nomination controversy shows no tax issue is too obscure for public judgment. One of Timothy Geitner’s main indiscretion was failure to pay the employer’s portion of his Social Security Tax when the IMF classified him as a contractor. As an inveterate skimmer of Human Resources memoranda, I can cast no blame. The Associated Press, however, quoted critics questioning his competence because of this.

I remember one of my friends admitting that in elementary school she assumed mathematicians add and subtract really big numbers all day. A similar misconception seems at the root of why many link mastery of tax trivia with the ability to manage the Treasury Department. Fearing that those around me are unwilling to differentiate accounting and IO theory, I likely always will self-prepare my taxes lest I lose credibility with my neighbors. Are other fields subject to similar expectations? Are astronomers expected to recite mythological stories about the constellations? Are landscape architects shamed into mowing their own lawns? Are historians expected to know their genealogy?