Hunter Biden paid off $450,000 tax lien in 6 days and his finances continue to be under a microscope as his father, Former Vice President Joe Biden runs for the 2020 presidential election.
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Hunter Biden settled a $450, 000 tax debt within six days last month, despite recently claiming he was too broke to pay child support, according to a new report, raising further questions about his financial dealings. The son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was slapped with the hefty lien on July 9 by the District of Columbia for unpaid state income taxes, and despite having no clear job, was able to “resolve” the bill in the space of a week, the Washington Free Beacon reported Monday. A spokesman for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer in DC confirmed to the publication that the younger Biden, aged 50, was released on July 15 after the “tax issue was resolved. ”It’s unclear how the potential First Son was able to pay off the nearly half-a-million-dollar debt so quickly but the report furthers questions about the family’s murky financial dealings. Before the pandemic, Senate Republicans had been preparing to investigate Hunter Biden’s job on the board of notoriously-corrupt Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, for which he was paid $50, 000 a month despite having no experience in the energy sector. At the time, his father was vice president and in charge of US policy toward Ukraine. Both Bidens have denied doing anything improper. Hunter Biden’s financial woes were made public last year when he was sued by an ex-stripper with whom who he fathered a child. He argued he couldn’t make child support payments because he was broke.“I attest that I am unemployed and have had no monthly income since May 2019, ” the former lobbyist wrote in a Nov. 2019 affidavit before settling with the woman out of court in March. The father of five also told the court he was in “significant debt” from his divorce with his ex-wife who accused him of blowing their money on hookers, strip clubs and drugs. Biden became a father for the fifth time in March when his second wife, Melissa Cohen, gave birth amid the coronavirus pandemic. He married Cohen just weeks after splitting from Hallie Biden, the widow of his late brother, Beau. The couple continue to be spotted driving a Porsche Panamera which retails at $129, 000 and Biden purchased a $2. 5 million home in Hollywood Hills last June.
For Biden Family, a History of Tax Problems
Hunter Biden was hit with a $450,000 lien in July over delinquent state income taxes, which he paid off in six days despite having no discernible income. Last year, he told the court judge in his paternity case that he was broke and unemployed.
The younger Biden owed $238,562.76 in state income taxes from 2017 and $215,328.16 in state income taxes from 2018, according to records from the District of Columbia’s Office of Tax and Revenue. The District of Columbia filed a $453,890 lien against him on July 9.
The lien is the latest in a series of substantial tax problems members of the Biden family have faced over the years, from Joe’s brother James’s six-figure tax debt in 2015 to multiple liens filed against Joe’s sister Valerie and her husband. It also raises new questions about Hunter Biden’s finances, which have been scrutinized during the election cycle. The lien follows controversy over Hunter’s high-paying consulting work for companies in Ukraine and China, and a high-profile child support case in which the younger Biden claimed he was in “significant debt” and refused to turn over court-ordered financial records.
A spokesman for D.C.’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer confirmed that Hunter Biden’s lien was released on July 15 after the “tax issue was resolved.” The office declined to say whether Biden had paid off the debt.
Harvey Bezozi, a tax expert who specializes in large-scale tax debt negotiations, said the only way to get a lien released is to pay the settlement in full—often through a payment plan, penalty abatement, or other compromise with the government—or to prove the lien was filed in error. He said liens can take months or years to resolve.
“It drags on,” he said. “Six days had to be some kind of expeditious kind of process for this.”
