California Democratic congressman owes another $30,000 in back taxes, says state lien
Rep. TJ Cox owes about $30,000 in back taxes to the state of California, according to a lien filed against him this month.
It’s the second tax lien filed this year against the freshman Democratic congressman who is a top Republican target in the 2020 race.
The lien from the state says Cox, D-Fresno, and his wife owe $30,482 in unpaid personal income tax for the year 2017.
The IRS in January filed liens against against Cox seeking $145,000 in unpaid tax, covering the years 2016 and 2017.
“The said amounts are due and payable and have not been paid,” the California lien states. “Said lien attaches to all property and rights to such property now owned or later acquired by the taxpayer.”
Cox’s campaign said he is working on repaying the taxes, and that the actions of a former business partner had caused his failing to pay state taxes as well as federal taxes.
“TJ Cox is in the process of paying his bill in full, but more importantly, he remains laser-focused on keeping the Valley safe in the face of the largest national emergency of our lifetimes,” the campaign said in a statement provided to McClatchy. “When a former business partner amended their 2016 federal filing in 2019, that altered Rep. Cox’s tax responsibilities, both federal and state.”
Cox was an entrepreneur for decades, founding dozens of businesses in real estate, health care and various production companies. He resigned from or dissolved the majority of those businesses in June 2019, about six months after he was elected to Congress.
Cox’s financial disclosure forms covering 2016 and 2017 list five different sources of significant income, ranging from $50,000 per year to up to $1 million per year, plus dozens of smaller sources of income.
The federal lien against the Fresno Democratic congressman lists about $87,000 in unpaid federal income tax for 2016 and about $57,000 in unpaid income tax in 2017. Cox’s campaign said he was on a repayment plan on the federal lien when McClatchy first reported the liens in February.
Cox had a previous federal lien assessed against him and his wife that he paid off in November 2017. The Internal Revenue Service assessed a $48,000 lien against him for unpaid income taxes for 2015.
Cox in a 2018 news story blamed that lien on “bureaucratic incompetence,” according to The Mercury News.
Cox now earns $174,000 per year under his congressman’s salary. His most recent financial disclosure, filed in November 2019, listed no other income that year.
Cox was one of seven Democrats who flipped Republican-held California congressional districts in November 2018, unseating former Republican Rep. David Valadao by less than 1,000 votes. Valadao is now challenging Cox for the seat in 2020.
Both candidates have complicated financial histories. Cox has had to revise the financial disclosures he is required to release as a congressman to acknowledge business interests he had omitted, and to report payment of a two-year-old settlement with employees of a Canadian mining company who claimed he had underpaid them.
Valadao last year filed for bankruptcy protection, and has been in court dealing with fallout from the bankruptcy of a family dairy.
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "California Democratic congressman owes another $30,000 in back taxes, says state lien."
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