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A Utah senator is on the defensive about a large tax bill four years ago.
Sen. Bob Bennett was part of a $320,000 tax bill in 2005. Today on KSL's Doug Wright show, he said, "The taxes you are talking about were property taxes levied against a business in which I had a minority interest. The business was failing, unable to, it certainly didn't pay any income taxes because there was no income, and was unable to pay the property taxes. Along with the other partners in the business, we negotiated its sale and, out of the proceeds of the sale, paid all of the back taxes and all of the back liens. All of this was fully public at the time."
He told Doug Wright the group legally delayed making paying. "The fact is, I've done nothing wrong and done nothing covert … There were no penalties for failure to pay, as would be the case with an IRS assessment. It did not involve federal taxes and did not involve any kind of cover up on my part … The implication is that I have done something wrong, recently. The fact is, I have done nothing wrong and done nothing covert, and it happened years ago."
He added, "I expect people to attack me, I expect people to criticize me. Let's stick with the facts, there was no attempt on anybody's part to do anything wrong, and there was no attempt on anybody's part to cover anything up, and there was no violation of tax law."
He said this situation is not like former Sen. Tom Daschle, who at one point owed the IRS $120,000. Bennett said, "To begin with, the two situations are not similar at all. Daschle's taxes were personal taxes at a time when he was making millions. The taxes that you are talking about were on a business, in which I had an interest, not the controlling interest."
He said Daschle did not tell the Obama transition team about the situation until just before the confirmation process for Health and Human Services Secretary last week.
You can listen to Sen. Bennett's interview by clicking on the audio link at the right.
E-mail: athomas@ksl.com
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