Finally, I have found common ground with Marion Barry. We both have tax problems.
Better said, the District of Columbia has a tax problem with me and the former mayor. For tax year 2007, I forked over many thousands of dollars in federal and local taxes. I filed my tax returns on time. I figured I was done. Apparently not.
I never got a call or a letter from the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue alerting me to a problem. The first I knew I was an alleged scofflaw was a letter from a collection agency. With no explanation, it simply said I had underpaid by $339 and therefore owed $2,058.
I keep copies of my tax returns and canceled checks going back a few years. I found the tax return in question and unearthed a check to D.C. for taxes my accountant said I owed. Armed with the documents, I phoned the tax office. I had to break through a few clerks before I got to one who said she would look into my situation. I faxed her my canceled check. She promised to get back to me. That was January.
Two weeks ago, I received another letter from the tax office. It says I owe the $2,058. There’s no explanation, no communication with the clerk, just a bill — and threats: “file a lien, seize assets” and so forth.
Former Mayor Marion Barry has a similar dispute with the D.C. tax office, but the stakes are much higher. We know the Ward 8 council member neglected to pay federal or D.C. taxes for many years. He pleaded guilty to that charge. He promised to start filing tax returns and repaying the back taxes. He did neither.
Federal prosecutors hauled Barry back to court a couple of times to force him to live up to his plea agreement. Barry’s notorious luck was with him: He drew Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson. A graduate of Morgan State University and Emory University Law School, Robinson is no friend of the government. She served as a federal prosecutor in D.C., but once on the bench, she often slammed the feds — and average Americans.
She was the judge who dismissed the lawsuit against Iran by survivors and families of victims of the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia — for lack of evidence, despite testimony by FBI Director Louis Freeh.
Robinson’s son, Phillip Robinson Winkfield, was arrested in Baltimore last year for dealing heroin and having an arsenal of handguns and rifles. She was in court last month when he was sentenced for heroin trafficking. Perhaps that’s why Robinson lambasted prosecutors for not proving their case that Barry should serve some time. I was in court when she grilled the prosecutors, rather than Barry. Her ruling sounded vindictive to me.
But it was good for Barry. Based on Robinson’s ruling, he has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the prosecutors.
My aim is more modest: I simply want someone to investigate whether and why I owe $2,058.
