(NewsNation) — Professor and author Cornel West, who is running as a 2024 presidential candidate with the Green Party, owes the IRS half a million dollars in back taxes, a review of public records by The Daily Beast found.
West, 70, announced his bid for president this summer, with the objective of changing the tone of politics.
“Both parties now stand in the way of coming to terms with the plight of poor and working people,” he said previously on “CUOMO.”
The activist, according to documents filed in Mercer County, New Jersey, where he owns a home, and in Los Angeles, where his personal attorney’s office is, owes a total of $543,778 in outstanding federal tax liens.
Unpaid taxes found by The Daily Beast include: $85,477 in 2017; $136,916 in 2016, $82,396 in 2015, $98,818 in 2014; $62,367.69 and $77,803.42 from 2005.
The IRS has not filed a release for these liens, the news outlet noted, so they either remain open or have only been repaid in the last 30 days. Although West could have entered a payment plan with the IRS, he did not say if he did so to The Daily Beast.
There were a couple unpaid taxes West was able to make good on: He paid down a balance of $724,397 in liens in 2010, and also, a $34,069 tax debt from 2008. IRS documents submitted in California show he resolved liens of $46,904.57 and $112,449 from 2011 and 2012 in June 14 of this year.
While West did not provide proof contradicting these claims before The Daily Beast published the story, despite the outlet reaching out repeatedly to him and his campaign manager Jill Stein, he did dismiss them on a podcast.
On “The Breakfast Club,” West said that the story was being used as a distraction from other problems he’s trying to highlight like poverty and injustice, adding, “This is just a matter of trying to hit you below the belt and keep the distraction.”
“Any time you shine a flashlight under somebody’s clothes, you’re gonna find all kind of mess, because that’s what it is to be human,” West said.
He did directly dispute one allegation: That a 2003 child support judgment valued at $49,500 remains open, per New Jersey court records.
“What upsets is when they’re lying about my kids—see, that’s what I can’t stand. Lie about my kids—see, I take care of my kids. I give them everything I got,” West said.