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Legislator: Tax bill to be settled
Yadkin County's McCormick says he plans to pay up in September
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Published: August 19, 2009
Updated: 08/19/2009 12:20 am
YADKINVILLE - A state representative said yesterday that he intends to pay his back taxes in September, but he said that the amount should be lower than the $88,874 that federal and state tax officials say he owes.
Rep. Darrell McCormick, R-Yadkin, said he is waiting for tax officials to send him a final bill for the back taxes. He said he hopes he can pay his taxes within two weeks.
McCormick owns a commercial real-estate and investment company in Winston-Salem. According to court records, the state of North Carolina filed a certificate of tax liability against McCormick for $17,850 in October 2008.
In December 2008, the Internal Revenue Service filed a federal tax lien against him for $71,024.
The taxes cover 2004 and 2007.
McCormick told the Winston-Salem Journal in January that he didn't pay his taxes because of a clerical error involving a mix-up over his gross pay and his take-home pay. He is self-employed and has a bookkeeper who helps prepare his taxes.
"It is an accounting mess," McCormick said. "They were coming in with numbers that were higher than ours."
He said that there was a nearly $4,000 overpayment for his 2003 state taxes that wasn't applied to his 2004 taxes. He and his accountant have worked with state and federal tax officials to resolve the discrepancy.
McCormick said he owes less than the $71,024 that the IRS says he owes, but he didn't know the exact amount. In January, he said he would pay his tax bill.
"I felt that the number was too high," McCormick said. "I wasn't going to pay it until I got it lowered."
He found the mistakes in the 2004 taxes and reported the problem to tax officials in August 2008.
"I thought it would be settled up in one meeting," McCormick said. "It was more complicated than I thought, too."
Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, the N.C. House minority leader, said that McCormick has not done anything illegal or unethical in not paying the back taxes.
Stam said that it is normal for taxpayers to take months to sort out disagreements with state and federal tax officials over back taxes.
Bill Holmes, a spokesman for Rep. Joe Hackney, the speaker of the House, said that Hackney has not made any public comment about McCormick's back taxes.
"The people of the district knew about those issues when Rep. McCormick was running for election, and they chose to elect him," Holmes said, referring to the 92nd District that McCormick represents.
McCormick defeated Democrat Rick Marshall with 63 percent of the vote to win the House seat in last November's general election. McCormick was elected in a historically Republican district that includes Yadkin and parts of Surry and Iredell counties.
He succeeded Republican Rep. George Holmes, who retired after 16 years in the legislature.
McCormick said he will run for re-election in the November 2010, and he realizes any political opponent may use his unpaid taxes against him.
"They are going to use anything they can," he said.
■ John Hinton can be reached at 727-7299 or at jhinton@wsjournal.com.
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