Report: Rep. West owes almost $1 million in back taxes
West, a Democrat from Hermitage and a member of the state House since 1984, hasn’t paid federal taxes in three years on two security companies he owns and runs, according to television reports.
The IRS has filed liens against West and his businesses, the reports said.
“He made a mistake,” West’s lawyer Bob Pope told WTVF in Nashville. “He didn’t have (money to pay the taxes). If he’d had it, it would have been paid. It was used to pay other bills.”
Nashville lawyer Hank Hildebrand said it’s not just the failure to pay the tax, but that West didn’t pay his employees’ withholding tax.
“They trusted him and the government trusted him to collect and forward it to pay their taxes,” Hildebrand said. “In my experience, having a tax lien of a million dollars shows a long-term, chronic problem.”
Dick Williams, state chairman for Common Cause of Tennessee, a Nashville-based government watchdog group, agreed with Hildebrand.
“Examples like this, assuming it’s as bad as it sounds, just adds to that feeling that they can’t be trusted,” Williams said.
The reports also showed a federal tax lien dating back to 1997, and state liens that showed he failed to pay employee taxes to the state in 1997, 1999 and 2001-03.
West, a former banker, said when he was elected that he would take care of taxpayers, saying at the time that he was “financially oriented.”
“He’s as sorry as he can be,” Pope said. “This is a business problem; it ain’t a political problem.”
West declined to be interviewed, but did read a statement for WTVF in the presence of his lawyer.
“I am confident now that this matter will be resolved and that we will pay back every cent that we owe the IRS,” he said.
West’s lawyer said the lawmaker hasn’t paid any of what he owes even though the IRS filed liens six months ago.
West will not be able to get out of his tax obligations by filing for bankruptcy, but he could work out a deal with the IRS where he would not have to pay the entire sum.
The amount he owes keeps growing through penalties and interest, and West has a tax lawyer and an accountant working to help fix the money problems.
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Information from: WTVF, http://www.newschannel5.com