Justice Secretary Brown paying back taxes

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

Kentucky Justice Secretary J. Michael Brown owes the U.S. government for underpayment of income taxes from his previous job as a Louisville lawyer.

Brown said Thursday that he pays the Internal Revenue Service $2,933 a month in back taxes, penalties and interest as part of a 48-month settlement he entered several years ago. Brown said he does not recall the original size of his debt, but he still owes the IRS $6,398 in back taxes and $17,599 in penalties and interest before his payments end in December.

Brown, who oversees the Kentucky State Police, the Corrections Department and other law-enforcement agencies, disclosed his IRS debt in his annual personal-finance statement to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.

He said he accidentally underpaid his quarterly estimated income taxes for 2003 and 2004. As a partner in private law practice, taxes were not withheld from his pay.

“The IRS called one day and said, ‘You’re short.’ Well, what do you say to the IRS?” Brown said Thursday. “I didn’t dispute what the IRS said. They offered me a payment plan, I entered into it, and I’ve been honoring it.”

Brown, hired by Gov. Steve Beshear in 2007, gets an annual salary of $136,500. Previously, he had been a partner with the Louisville firms of Stites & Harbison and Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, a Jefferson District Court judge, law director for the city of Louisville and an assistant commonwealth’s attorney.

The governor’s office commended Brown Thursday for handling the issue correctly.

“Secretary Brown voluntarily disclosed this issue to the governor and the general counsel before joining the administration and has also disclosed it, as appropriate, in his annual financial disclosure forms,” said Beshear spokeswoman Jill Midkiff. “Secretary Brown is meeting his obligations as a taxpayer. He simply underestimated the amount of taxes owed during a period of time before he entered government.”

Filed Under: Featured • State Government