latimes.com

California lieutenant governor's family business owes U.S. more than $ 100.000 in taxes.


The IRS files a lien against Abel Maldonado's Santa Barbara Countyfarm. It is the ninth since 1992 that collectors have filed against him to company payments totaling more than $ 240,000.

by Jack Dolan and ShaneGoldmacher, Los Angeles Times.

july 24 , 2010

Reporting from Sacramento

A business owned by California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado and his family owes the federal goverment more than $ 100,000. in taxes. According to a lien fikled against the property by the Internal Revenue Service earlier this year.

It is the ninth time since 1992 that federal state or local tax collector have resorted to liens against the Santa Maria Republican's family farm in an effort to complet payments totaling more than $ 240,000, public records show.

Federal officials filed April 13, two weeks before Gov.Arnold Schwarzenegger swore in Maldonado as the state's second highest-ranking public official.

The singe -page IRS lien indicates that Maldonado owes the goverment $ 111,146 for underpaying a category of taxes that include Social Security, Medicare and federal withholding contibutions for employees on his 6,000_acre farm in Santa Barbara County.

An IRS spokesman declined to comment on the ongoing case.

Maldonado did not respond to a request for comment. But Brandon Gesicki, spokesman , for Maldonado's reelection campaing, said the outstanding taxes are " absolutely" not an employee compensation issue...i
It is a dispute over the use of company vehicles"

Gesicki, said the IRS claims that about a dozens Ford_150 pickup trucks driven by company officers. including Maldonado's father, mother and sister, are for personal use, not business purposes. The federal goverment wants the company to pay taxes on the vehicles as part of a compensation package, he said.
The company Agro-jal farming Enterpise in Santa Maria , argues that the trucks are being used for business, Gesicki, said

" Abel, time from time, does drive want one these vehicles, " Gesicki,said ," But for most of the time the lien covers, he has a state vehicle".

The lien say Agro-jal failed to pay $ 54,048 in 2006,in 57098 in 2007, while Maldonado was a atate senator , The previous liens, filed between in 1992 and 2002, range in size from an $ 81,129 IRS bill in 1995 to a $ 408 state tax bill in 1998. All have since been realesed , Gesicki said.

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