Inman’s Housekeeper Tax Problem Seen as Not Fatal

White House officials said Monday that Secretary of Defense-designate Bobby Ray Inman had failed to pay Social Security taxes for a part-time housekeeper but that President Clinton would proceed with the nomination.

If confirmed, Inman would join at least one other Cabinet member--Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown--and two dozen other high-level appointees who have received top Administration jobs despite Social Security tax violations.

Early in Clinton’s tenure, the issue helped scuttle several nominations, most notably that of Zoe Baird to be attorney general.

After several months of difficulty, Clinton and Senate leaders announced earlier this year that they wkuld not consider such tax problems to be a disqualification so long as the nominee voluntarily disclosed the liability and agreed to pay back taxes.

“At the outset of his discussions with the White House, Adm. Inman fully disclosed this situation and made clear his intent to come into compliance with Administration policy on this issue,” White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said in a statement.

Inman has now paid $6,000 in back taxes, Myers said.

After the highly public fight over the Baird nomination, some leaders of women’s groups argued that the issue of taxes paid for domestic help was being used against female nominees but not against men. Before the new policy was adopted, however, the Social Security problem also snared some high-level male potential nominees, particularly Charles F.C. Ruff, a well-known former prosecutor who had been slated to be deputy attorney general.

In Inman’s case, the retired admiral and his wife have employed a part-time housekeeper one or two days a week since 1986 and did not pay Social Security taxes on her wages.

The Social Security law requires payment of taxes on the wages for domestic help if the employee earns more than $50 in a calendar quarter. Congress has discussed raising that threshold but has not yet acted.

The public debate over Social Security tax payments began with Baird, who faced twin problems: She had failed to pay taxes, and the employee in question was an illegal immigrant. Inman’s employee was a U.S. citizen, White House officials said.

After Baird withdrew, the Administration considered nominating U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood for the attorney general’s post, only to discover that she, too, had employed an illegal immigrant.

Wood, however, had paid all her taxes and--at the time she hired the person in question--employment of illegal immigrants was not a crime.

Even so, Clinton decided not to nominate Wood, in part because White House officials believed that she had not been forthcoming in telling them about her employee.