High-Profile Democrat Fails to Pay Taxes on Time Despite At Least 7-Figure Net Worth
As a U.S. senator, Joe Manchin pulls in $174,000 annually — a little more than three times the median income for full-time workers, according to 2020 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. However, that’s only part of the picture.
Because of income from businesses and investments, the West Virginia Democrat’s net worth is estimated to be in the neighborhood of $12 million, or about four to 12 times what the typical American man will bring in during his entire lifetime, according to the Social Security Administration.
So you’d think Manchin would be able to pay his taxes on time. According to a Thursday report from Fox News, however, that’s not always been the case.
Just last week, according to Fox, Manchin paid three years of back taxes to Marion County, West Virginia, to the tune of $700.
Three years ago, he made a similar payment in the amount of $630 for taxes that were at that time between two and four years past due.
In both cases, the taxes seemed to be property taxes related to vehicles, including boats and trailers.
Unsurprisingly, Manchin’s team downplayed the senator’s avoidance of his legal and civic responsibilities.
“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 spokesperson told Fox News.
More surprisingly, the county that was owed the taxes also downplayed the incidents.
“I’m pretty sure this is something that just has not been brought to his attention or merely slipped off the radar,” Marion County Clerk Julie Kincaid told Fox. “It’s probably one of those mountain-out-of-a-molehill situations.
“I mean, I get it, he’s very high-profile,” she added, calling the news of his late payments “tremendously overblown.”
(Not surprisingly at all, Kincaid told Fox she was a Democrat.)
Manchin, one of the most moderate Democrats still holding a Senate seat, faces a potentially tough re-election battle next year, with two well-known Republicans in the state already stepping into the ring to challenge him.
According to West Virginia’s Office of the Secretary of State, registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats in the state, 39.1 percent to 33.2 percent.
Manchin has not yet announced whether he will run again next year.
Manchin has spent most of his life in elected office. He served as the state’s governor from 2005 through 2010, when he was first elected to the Senate.
As recently as June, Manchin refused to rule out a possible third-party run for president in 2024 with the self-described non-partisan group No Labels, saying that he was “not ruling anything in, not ruling anything out,” in an interview cited by The Hill.
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