#unpaid taxes

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Philosopher and presidential Green Party candidate Cornel West currently owes more than half a million dollars between unpaid taxes and unpaid child support, according to tax records.

Records show West owes nearly $466,000 in federal income taxes from 2013 until 2017. This came after he accrued (and later repaid) a debt of nearly $725,000 from 1998-2005, and more than $34,000 in 2008, according to tax records in Mercer County, New Jersey – where he owns a home.

Additionally, West has an outstanding $49,500 child support judgement from 2003, records show.

The debts were first reported by The Daily Beast.

The tax debts have not been paid off as of 30 days ago – the last available data, according to Mercer County records. ABC News reached out to West and his campaign to see if West had plans to pay off the debt or set up a payment plan; they have not returned those requests for comment.

The outstanding child support payment is owed to Aytul Gurtas, his former partner and mother of one of his children. ABC News was unable to reach Gurtas for comment.

While it's not clear how long West didn't pay child support, New Jersey family lawyer Kathleen Stockton said that the amount of money appears substantial. The average U.S. child support obligation is about $5,800 per year, according to census data, making West's nearly $50,000 more than eight times that.

Stockton noted that it is possible West paid Gurtas and didn't register it with the court – though West has given no indication of that.

When the question of his debts was brought up on The Breakfast Club radio morning show last week, West told the radio show host "Charlamagne the God" that they were being used as a "distraction" from his presidential campaign, which has focused on ending poverty, mass incarceration and environmental degradation.

"Any time you shine a flashlight under somebody's clothes, you're gonna find all kind of mess, because that's what it is to be human," West said.

Earlier on the show, West mentioned he was "broke as the Ten Commandments financially, personally, collectively."

West's debts are personal, not related to the campaign, so they may not directly bear on the finances of his candidacy. Still, personal finance issues have been known to interfere with campaigns: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's sometimes imprudent management of his own finances were scrutinized during his 2016 campaign for president, and then-Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's personal debt seemed to undermine his message of fiscal hawkishness.

According to West's financial disclosure filed with the Federal Election Commission in August 2023, he currently makes at least $200,000 annually. That includes his professorship at the Union Theological Seminary, where his annual income falls upward of $100,000; his speaking engagements, where he makes at least another $100,000; and his retirement fund, which earns him somewhere between $5,000 and $15,000 annually. His spouse, a professor, makes at least $50,000 per year.

Kedric Payne, an ethics lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center, said in an email to ABC News that the U.S. Office of Government Ethics advises candidates to disclose debts the size of West's.

"The federal disclosure law requires candidates for president to report liabilities owed over $10,000. Child support is excluded, but OGE advises that overdue taxes are reportable. If West in fact owes taxes, voters have a right to know why this isn't disclosed," Payne wrote.

West's associate, author Christopher Phillips described West as "authentic" and someone who hasn't hesitated to spend his own money to help others.

Phillips, who said he has known West for eight years, said that when he first met West over the phone, the scholar volunteered to lecture and spend time with his students at the University of Pennsylvania, where Phillips was a writing fellow.

"He said he could come down on his own nickel, and he spent the entire day breaking philosophical bread with my students … just because he likes what I do," Phillips said.

The campaign did not respond to ABC News' multiple requests for comment.

[blackjewels5]

Lil Wayne owed a tax debt, amounting to a staggering $14 million, equivalent to nearly 11 billion Naira. However, in an act of profound generosity, JAY-Z extended his benevolent hand and settled the debt on Wayne's behalf.

In heartfelt appreciation, Wayne expressed, 'There are people like Jay-Z. He helped me when I was, really, really down. Down,” Wayne said to a crowd during a performance in Chicago.

If you're wondering why Wayne has so much respect & love for Hov, this is one of the reasons!

[dark-mega]

Hey, dark-mega! Did you ask for my video?

PLAY VID 🍓👉 @AnnaPRNF65lHfI 👈🍓

I don’t care who the bots send I’m not paying taxes

[if-you-love-polls]

reblog for sample size I wanna see how many of you don't pay your fucking taxes

[genx3791]

[socialismforall]

Free advice to anyone running for POTUS: When they ask you about the $50K you owe in child support & the $500K you owe the IRS, don't dodge the questions. It makes you look ridiculous.

The Green Party US has 10 months to come up w/a better candidate, maybe a labor leader?*

source: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/green-party-candidate-cornel-west-owes-half-million/story?id=102293692

Additionally, West was spotted this week at the sentencing hearing of Mark Ridley-Thomas, convicted of "seven felonies — bribery, conspiracy, four counts of honest services wire fraud, and one count of honest services mail fraud — in a scheme in which he extracted benefits from USC for himself and his son while on L.A. County’s powerful Board of Supervisors," according to the LA Times, as one of Ridley-Thomas's supporters.

source: https://twitter.com/JonnyPeltz/status/1696245729273254380

source: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-08-28/ridley-thomas-sentencing

For background on Mark Ridley-Thomas, see this article from Knock LA, a grassroots homeless advocacy and support organization featured in our most recent reading, "Infrastructures of Community": https://knock-la.com/mark-ridley-thomas-anti-homeless-camping-laws/ Knock LA reports that, "rather than acting as “champion of the homeless population,” [Ridley-Thomas] acted as champion of homeless policy," and that "Ridley-Thomas introduced legislation for LA Municipal Code 41.18 on June 30, 2021, which bans “sitting, lying, or sleeping or storing, using, maintaining, or placing personal property in the public right-of-way” around transportation structures (everything from driveways to freeway underpasses) [...]. So far, the measure has been used to effectively ban homeless people from taking up space at over 140 sites across the city, with $2 million allotted by the council for the signage alone."

After leaving the courthouse, West was asked why he was supporting an LA politics insider convicted of bribery when his companion shooed the interviewer away, saying they were "putting West's life in danger": https://twitter.com/theveganforest/status/1696290380361162759

As one commenter put it, "Starting to think this Harvard professor-turned-TV gadfly might not be on the level regarding his commitment to left-wing politics."

*There are nine other candidates in the GPUS primaries already: https://www.fec.gov/data/candidates/president/?election_year=2024&cycle=2024&election_full=true&party=GRE

[terriblyrenderedenigma]

If they personify the IRS into a smoking hot dude with big thighs and pillow pecs/a smoking hot gal with a big chest and hella curves/anything in between but with the head of the IRS logo, Would yall do your fuckin taxes?

Like if you do your taxes you get rewarded with the personified IRS hottie of your choice.

[evi4th]

funny humour silly i love goverment

i evade taxes

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“UNEMPLOYED ARE MADE PAY TAXES,” Hamilton Spectator. March 17, 1931. Page 7. ---- He is Powerless To Let Men Off, Magistrate Says --- City Prosecutes For Non-Payment of Poll Tax --- In times of depression should there be such a thing as poll tax? 

Thirty-two cases appeared on the roster before Magistrate H. A. Burbidge in city police court this morning, all charged with failure to pay the statute and labor tax of $5 a year. Some of them managed to pay the fine but others, less fortunate, were sent down for ten days. 

One youth, who for the past two years has been supporting his father and mother on the odd jobs he might pick up here and there, jobs that barely kept him neck and neck with the fleeting wolf, was found guilty of not paying the city's poll tax and just managed to raise the money by luck. 

On conviction, his worship was fining them $5, which on payment was applied to the poll tax, and costs of $2.50. The option in default of payment was a ten-day term in Barton street jail. 

"How can they do it?” one young lawyer, who expressed his indignation in no uncertain terms, was heard to ask.

The question could not be answered. Many of the defendants were men working on city relief jobs, men who needed positively every cent they earned to keep square with the times, and yet the cases went on. Many of the cases were heart-rending, but the city by-law demands that any man over the age of 21 years, who is not on the assessment roll, who does not pay taxes and who is not a house-holder is subject to the poll tax of $5. 

At this time every year the city tax collector hales numbers to court for this offense. To-day was the first day of the annual round-up. Magistrate Burbidge was very sympathetic, but what could he do? 

"I have no option," he said. "It's not a matter for me, but one for the city corporation." 

Six out of the 32 were sentenced to spend the next ten days in jail. Two of these managed to raise the necessary fiver through friends That left four to journey to the jail. At noon Tax Collector Hopper arrived at Central police station and informed authorities that he had decided to give these men an additional seven days grace in which to raise the money. If they cannot pay within a week, there will be no other way out but the jail term.

[iamhowiseeit]

#Shakira hasn’t paid taxes and the PEOPLE want their Money. Let’s Gossip! Follow for more great Content on your favorite #Celebrities Right Here on "How I See It!"

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[6ebe]

[vanmarkham]

biggest fear is frfr getting my 30 remaining credits and studying for a year to pass all the sections of the cpa exam and then still not finding shit bc I don’t have experience

[intelligentchristianlady]

And yet again the Republicans are proved wrong.

[strxnged]

i shouldn't be surprised by this, but i decided to finally fuck around with ch. ai last night and was severely disillusioned. maybe it's because i'm a writer, but although the dialogue was definitely long-winded and detailed with the characters i spoke with, it was incredibly lifeless and dry. many times i was more impressed by the lore knowledge than the personality. nothing against character ai, but i think i'm a bit comforted by the fact that my work as a fic writer cannot be replicated so easily lmao

[bisexualspace]

!!!

sounds like its going to be 72 hour full walkout of all junior doctors, the biggest strike on record... perhaps tories shouldn't have cut funding to the nhs for 10+ years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[industrialgender]

went to take my car for the yearly inspection since i THOUGHT it was due on the 8th but it was actually due on the 18th 😔