President-elect Barack Obama’s pick for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is taking heat from Congress regarding a housekeeper and lapses in paying taxes.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee is raising questions about a housekeeper that worked for Geithner briefly without proper immigration papers. Geithner is also taking heat over multiple years when Geithner didn’t pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself as an employee of the International Monetary Fund.

Grassley is currently conducting an “emergency meeting” of the finance committee on the issue.

In the case of the housekeeper, the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported Geithner employed a housekeeper whose papers expired while she was working for Geithner. The women did get a green card to work legally in the U.S. There were no charges filed against her.

As for the taxes, when Geithner worked for the International Monetary Fund between 2001 and 2004, he worked as a self-employed person and was required to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself as a employer and employee. According to the paper, he didn’t, which prompted Internal Revenue Service audits for the last two years he was at the IMF. Geithner paid taxes with interest as soon at the IRS brought the matter to his attention.

Obama aides told the paper they don’t these issue would create a problem for Geithner’s nomination.

Sources told Fox Business Network on Tuesday that Geithner met with a bipartisan group of Senate Finance Committee members so they could hear directly from him. Geithner said he made a common mistake on his tax returns with regard to self-employment taxes. He corrected the mistake voluntarily when it was discovered and said he paid all his income taxes on his IMF income.

As part of the vetting process conducted by the Presidential Transition Team, it was discovered that Geithner mistakenly had not paid self-employment taxes in 2001 and 2002 as an IMF employee. Geithner had initially prepared the returns himself. However, an accountant reviewed his 2001 returns as part of an amended return filed 2002, and also failed to catch the mistake on the self-employment taxes.

Upon learning of this error on November 21, 2008, Geithner immediately submitted payment for tax that would have been due in those years plus interest. For 2001 Mr. Geithner paid additional tax of $2,364 and interest of $956, for a total of $3,320. For 2002 he paid additional tax of $16,812 and interest of $5838, for a total of $22,650. The total additional amount paid for the two years was $25,970. All of his taxes have now been paid in full, and at no time was there any intention on Geithner’s part to avoid taxes.

Geithner worked for the IMF until the fall of 2003, and he also received a small amount of income from the IMF in early 2004. An accountant prepared Geithner’s 2003 and 2004 returns and advised him in writing that he was exempt from self-employment taxes on his IMF income.

In 2006, the IRS initiated a letter audit of Geithner’s taxes for 2003 and 2004 and concluded that he owed self-employment tax and interest for 2003 and 2004 with respect to his IMF employment. He paid tax and interest totaling $17,230 (of which $14,847 was tax and $2,383 was interest) for the two-year period, and the IRS waived all penalties. Also, Mr. Geithner was advised that he had no further liability for Social Security taxes on his IMF income.

The Committee also raised an issue regarding a housekeeper that the Geithners employed to clean their home from 2004-05. The Geithners verified that she had a current Employee Authorization Document at the time she was hired. Geithner was unaware that three months before she stopped working for them to have a baby, her authorization expired. Nevertheless, she continued to reside legally in the United States, she was married to a U.S. citizen, and she was granted a green card a few months later.

Geithner Background Documents