IRS says Schwarzenegger owes $79,000
(11-27) 17:32 PST SACRAMENTO -- As if a projected $20.7 billion state budget deficit wasn't bad enough, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has another financial headache to deal with: clearing up paperwork related to his 2004 and 2005 federal taxes.
The tangle involves a lien of $79,064 placed on Schwarzenegger's property by the Internal Revenue Service. The lien was filed in May in Los Angeles County, where the governor and his family live, and surfaced Friday morning on a celebrity Web site, tmz.com.
News of the lien brought a quick defense from Schwarzenegger's staff, with a morning declaration that the governor had paid all his taxes, followed mid-afternoon by a release that ascribed the glitch to sloppy record-keeping.
"After contacting the IRS, it appears that there was a minor paperwork tracking discrepancy," press secretary Aaron McLear said via e-mail. "The issue is completely unrelated to the payment of taxes. ... The governor is resubmitting certain information to the IRS, and we fully expect that the matter will be resolved and the lien expunged without any penalty assessed upon the governor."
The IRS does not comment on individual cases, so the reason for the lien isn't clear.
For 2004, the lien records an "unpaid balance of assessment" of $39,047.20. A $40,016.80 assessment is recorded for 2005.
Unlike many elected officials, the former film star-turned-governor has only fitfully released information about his taxes. During his 2006 re-election campaign, however, he allowed reporters to spend several hours examining his returns for three years, including 2004 - a year in which he paid roughly $4 million in taxes on income of $16.8 million, mostly from investments.
Schwarzenegger has not released his 2005 taxes.
The governor isn't the only California politician dealing with a tax lien: In October, the IRS placed a lien on the property of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and his wife for not paying $239,000 in taxes that the agency says the couple owe for 2005 through 2007.
The lien on the governor's property, by contrast, is related to section 6721 of the Internal Revenue Code, "Failure to file correct information returns."
The IRS assesses a $50 penalty for each "information return" filed after the required filing date and for the filing of incomplete or incorrect information. The total fine that can be levied for any calendar year is $250,000.
Read more: IRS says Schwarzenegger owes $79,000
(11-27) 17:32 PST SACRAMENTO -- As if a projected $20.7 billion state budget deficit wasn't bad enough, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has another financial headache to deal with: clearing up paperwork related to his 2004 and 2005 federal taxes.
The tangle involves a lien of $79,064 placed on Schwarzenegger's property by the Internal Revenue Service. The lien was filed in May in Los Angeles County, where the governor and his family live, and surfaced Friday morning on a celebrity Web site, tmz.com.
News of the lien brought a quick defense from Schwarzenegger's staff, with a morning declaration that the governor had paid all his taxes, followed mid-afternoon by a release that ascribed the glitch to sloppy record-keeping.
"After contacting the IRS, it appears that there was a minor paperwork tracking discrepancy," press secretary Aaron McLear said via e-mail. "The issue is completely unrelated to the payment of taxes. ... The governor is resubmitting certain information to the IRS, and we fully expect that the matter will be resolved and the lien expunged without any penalty assessed upon the governor."
The IRS does not comment on individual cases, so the reason for the lien isn't clear.
For 2004, the lien records an "unpaid balance of assessment" of $39,047.20. A $40,016.80 assessment is recorded for 2005.
Unlike many elected officials, the former film star-turned-governor has only fitfully released information about his taxes. During his 2006 re-election campaign, however, he allowed reporters to spend several hours examining his returns for three years, including 2004 - a year in which he paid roughly $4 million in taxes on income of $16.8 million, mostly from investments.
Schwarzenegger has not released his 2005 taxes.
The governor isn't the only California politician dealing with a tax lien: In October, the IRS placed a lien on the property of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and his wife for not paying $239,000 in taxes that the agency says the couple owe for 2005 through 2007.
The lien on the governor's property, by contrast, is related to section 6721 of the Internal Revenue Code, "Failure to file correct information returns."
The IRS assesses a $50 penalty for each "information return" filed after the required filing date and for the filing of incomplete or incorrect information. The total fine that can be levied for any calendar year is $250,000.
Read more: IRS says Schwarzenegger owes $79,000
