IRS Files Notice of $800k Tax Lien Against John Kerry's 2004 Campaign

The IRS has filed a Notice of Federal Tax Lien against John Kerry's 2004 campaign:

The IRS has filed notice of a $819,848 federal tax lien against Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign for failure to file payroll tax forms, but Kerry on Wednesday blamed an IRS clerical error. Tax Analysts reports that Sen. Kerry released documentation from the Paychex payroll service claiming that the tax forms were properly filed in January 2005 and then twice in 2008 after the IRS assessed the penalties for failure to file the forms.

Quick observations:

1.) The PDF version of the document is no longer online but when I first read this story I saw it's actually for an IRC 6721 penalty. That's for failure to timely file W-2s. At $819,848, that's a lot of unfiled W-2s, even when you factor in interest. That's a huge clerical error.

2.) As a clerical error, the matter could have been easily resolved. As the campaign states, they tried to correct this in 2008. The problem: that was after they were assessed the penalties. The problem with that: the IRS only assesses penalties after giving you the chance to clear up the matter.

3.) Even if the matter is cleared up, the IRS can still assess the penalty. A high profile case like this means the IRS probably looked at their reasons for late filing with a highly skeptical eye and refused any request of waiver. If they'd gone to Appeals, they might've had the matter resolved there. Maybe they did and the IRS stuck to their guns.

4.) If number 3 played out, the campaign could still go to Tax Court and resolve the matter. A negotiated settlement might've resulted but, again, the high profile of the campaign could have put a monkey-wrench in that. The IRS wouldn't likely pass up a good example of what they can do. Still, the campaign should have fought this tooth-and-nail.

5.) Finally, no matter what the campaign did to resolve this, they eventually lost and would have received an assessment notice. And two more notices afterward before the Notice was filed. Ample opportunity to get this paid and avoid the Notice.

6.) Which is all to say that it's a good thing we didn't elect John Kerry. If he couldn't get his campaign to take care of this problem, imagine how he would have run the country.