West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin has been making payments on taxes he owed on personal property items and real estate in recent years, according to a new report.
Some of the late payments Manchin made came within days of their due dates, and others were made months or years later, according to an NBC News report published Wednesday.
Last week, Manchin paid off roughly $700 he owed to Marion County, West Virginia, in back taxes he had accrued over the past three years on a pontoon boat and multiple trailers, the outlet reported.
Similarly, in 2020, the senator made nearly $630 in tax payments to the same county for taxes he owed on vehicles, boats and trailers from 2016, 2017 and 2018.
The late payments — detailed in records that go back as far as 2009 — sometimes included fines or interest Manchin had accumulated over time.
"Like most West Virginians, Senator Manchin has always paid every tax bill he's received in full and any lapse in payment has been quickly rectified as soon as he has been made aware," a Manchin spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
In a statement to NBC News, Marion County Clerk Julie Kincaid insisted the late tax payments made by Manchin were "tremendously overblown" as she recognized the low amounts he owed.
"I’m pretty sure this is something that just has not been brought to his attention or merely slipped off the radar," said Kincaid, a Democrat. "It’s probably one of those mountain-out-of-a-molehill situations. I mean, I get it, he’s very high-profile."
Manchin, a moderate Democrat who has served in the Senate since 2010, faces an uphill battle should he decide to seek re-election to his post in 2024. Two prominent Republicans — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and Rep. Alex Mooney — have already announced they will seek the seat currently held by Manchin in next year's election.
In May, a little more than a month after Justice announced his decision to enter the 2024 Senate race, the Department of Justice announced it was suing 13 coal companies owned and operated by the governor's son. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Roanoke Division, alleges that James C. Justice III and his companies committed more than 100 violations harmful to the environment, and seeks $7.6M.
DEMOCRAT HOUSE MEMBER FAILED TO PAY PROPERTY TAXES FOR SIX MONTHS UNTIL LOCAL MEDIA NOTICED
While tax issues have plagued members of both political parties, Manchin is not the only Democrat to struggle making on-time tax payments in recent years.
Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has represented Ohio in the Senate since 2007, and his wife, Connie Schultz, have made late tax bill payments on their Cleveland home at least seven times since they purchased it in 2013.
The couple missed a payment deadline in February, according Cuyahoga County treasurer documents, NBC reported earlier this year. The county labeled them as delinquent in 2015 after a nearly $1,200 bill went unpaid for months.
Like Manchin, Brown, who was the secretary of state in Ohio for during the 1980s, faces a tough re-election campaign as Republicans look to flip his seat in the state's 2024 election.
Last month, it was reported that Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., did not pay property taxes for six months on an auto repair shop owned with her husband until after a local media outlet asked about it.
When the Nov. 15, 2022 tax deadline rolled around, just days after Gluesenkamp Perez's midterm election win, a payment of about $6,000 was not made. Gluesenkamp Perez's office remained silent until after the balance and interest owed was paid off, providing receipts of the payment in a response to the news outlet.
"Last fall, my husband and I were focused on running our family business, raising our infant, and the final weeks of an intense, hard-fought election campaign," the Democratic congresswoman said in a statement to the Oregonian. "After I was declared the winner, I gave up ownership of the property at 1506 NE Lombard. The property tax bill has been paid in full during the tax year in question."
Fox News' Aubrie Spady contributed to this article.
