Georgia, Cain Battled Over Unpaid Tax Bill

He didn't pay '06 income tax until late '08
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 26, 2011 1:19 PM CDT
Georgia, Cain Battled Over Unpaid Tax Bill
Herman Cain speaks to a gathering of conservative Christians at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition Presidential Forum on October 22, 2011 in Des Moines.   (Getty Images)

Herman Cain's only tax-related beef isn't with the federal tax code: The GOP frontrunner was involved in a brouhaha with Georgia over his 2006 state income taxes that lasted until late 2008, according to documents obtained by the Daily Beast. To be fair, Cain was undergoing treatment for cancer in 2006, and got a six-month reprieve from paying his federal taxes because of it. Cain thought that covered him for Georgia’s state taxes as well, but in October 2007, the state sent him a notice saying he was overdue and owed penalties.

Cain still didn’t pay up, so four months later the state served him with a tax lien for $8,558.46. Still Cain didn’t pay—his accountant battled the state Department of Revenue until November 2008, and the lien was finally lifted in December. A Cain spokesman confirmed the episode, but said it was an innocent omission that only served “as an example of how broken our federal and state bureaucracies are” regarding tax collection. “The entire process is driven by automated letters generated in response to deadlines." The Daily Beast has the court documents here. (More Herman Cain stories.)

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