Radical “socialist” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has been hit with fines after failing to pay her taxes in New York state.
The congresswoman was fined over her failure to pay a tax warrant filed against her former business five years ago.
In 2012, AOC started a children’s book publishing company called Brook Avenue Press.
On July 6, 2017, New York state filed a tax warrant against Brook Avenue Press to collect $1,618 in unpaid corporate taxes.
At first, Ocasio-Cortez claimed it was an error and said she would fix it.
However, she later said she would contest the charges.
The status of AOC’s case is uncertain but she has yet to pay one cent of her overdue corporate taxes which, after fines, made the current balance jump by 52% to $2,461.
“The congresswoman is still in the process of contesting the tax warrant,” Ocasio-Cortez spokeswoman Lauren Hitt told the New York Post in May 2020.
“The business has been closed for several years now, and so we believe that the state Tax Department has continued to collect the franchise tax in error.
“As anyone who’s tried to contest a tax bill in error knows, it takes time.”
According to The Washington Examiner:
“A representative for the Bronx County Clerk’s Office confirmed to the tax warrant against Ocasio-Cortez’s business remains open.
“Ocasio-Cortez’s office previously told the New York Post in March 2019 that the lawmaker first learned of the tax warrant against her former business after she was sworn into Congress in January that year.
“Ocasio-Cortez initially pledged to repay her delinquent corporate tax bill, but her office later said the warrant was issued ‘in error’ and that she was contesting the matter.”
From The Daily Caller:
The New York representative called for raising taxes to 60% – 70% for the people at the very top to pay for her climate agenda.
“But once you get to, like, the tippy tops on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in 2019.
“As you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more. … If that’s what radical means, call me a radical.”
The representative appeared at the annual Met Gala wearing a white dress with the words “Tax The Rich” written across the back in large, red letters.
According to New York State’s website on Tax Warrants:
A tax warrant is equivalent to a civil judgment against you, and protects New York State’s interests and priority in the collection of outstanding tax debt. We file a tax warrant with the appropriate New York State county clerk’s office and the New York State Department of State, and it becomes a public record. A filed tax warrant creates a lien against your real and personal property, and may: allow us to seize and sell your real and personal property, allow us to garnish your wages or other income, affect your ability to buy or sell property, or affect your ability to obtain credit.
You can search for a tax warrant using the New York State Tax Warrants search tool.
What happens
If you fail to timely resolve your tax debt, your past due tax debt becomes fixed and final and we may file a tax warrant against you. Before we file a tax warrant, we will send you notice of the debt, and give you an opportunity to resolve it.
When we file a tax warrant, we send you a copy of the warrant. If you fail to resolve your warranted balance, we will proceed with further collection action.
If your total warranted balance is paid in full, we will send the county clerk a Satisfaction of Judgment stating your warranted debt has been paid in full.
The clerk will file the Satisfaction of Judgment, and we will send you a copy. You should retain this copy for your records. We will also notify the Department of State that the tax warrant has been satisfied.
How to resolve
You must pay your total warranted balance in full to satisfy your tax warrant.
If you can’t pay your tax debt in full, you may be able to set up an installment payment agreement (IPA) to prevent additional collection action.
If you set up an IPA, the warrant will remain on file and continue to be a lien on your real and personal property until your total warranted balance is paid in full.
