The Internal Revenue Service has placed liens totaling more than half a million dollars against a local candidate running for Circuit Court judge, according to Lowndes County courthouse documents.
Monique Montgomery, 48, is running for District 16 Circuit Court Judge against incumbent Lee Coleman. The district contains Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay and Noxubee counties. The term is four years. The position currently pays approximately $120,085 a year.
Montgomery, who owned and operated Montgomery Law Firm LLC in Columbus until she closed the doors in April, has a federal tax lien in the amount of $178,605 against the law firm, according to documents at the Lowndes County Chancery Clerk’s office. The lien is from tax years 1998-2005. The lien was filed at the courthouse in September 2013.
When asked about the liens Wednesday, Montgomery said she had no knowledge of the situation, saying, “I’m just the wife.”
“I don’t know anything about any of that,” Montgomery said. “I don’t even know how to spell tax. You’d have to talk to Tony about that. I’ve never even looked at them.”
Montgomery is married to Tony Montgomery, a local minister. Monique Montgomery said she has no direct involvement with her family’s finances.
“I don’t do anything with the house and stuff like that,” she said. “My husband handles all of our business…in our household, I don’t handle anything business oriented.”
Montgomery said the couple is working on paying off their income tax debt.
Montgomery and her husband also have a federal tax lien of $72,868.32 for tax year 2011, according to a document filed last month at the Chancery Clerk’s Office.
Clay County Chancery Court records did not indicate that Coleman, who is in his first term as a Circuit Court judge, and who lives in Clay County, had any tax liens against him or his property.
According to irs.gov, the IRS’s website, a federal tax lien is “the government’s legal claim against your property when you neglect or fail to pay a tax debt.”
A federal lien exists, the website explains, after the IRS “puts your balance due on the books” and “sends you a bill that explains how much you owe” and the debtors “neglect or refuse to fully pay the debt in time.”
The liens are two of six liens filed against Montgomery and her husband in Lowndes County, totaling $557,939.68. The liens are for tax years 1998-2004 and tax years 2010-2012, according to documents.
In 2004, according to two certificates of release of federal tax liens obtained by The Dispatch, the couple paid off two tax liens from tax year 1997. The two certificates of release of federal tax lien are the only releases on file for either Montgomery at the local Chancery Clerk’s office, Chancery Clerk Lisa Neese confirmed.
Montgomery, in an interview with The Dispatch on Wednesday, said she was first contacted by the IRS “two to three years ago.” Paperwork on file at the Chancery Clerk’s office regarding the 1997 and 1998 tax liens begins in 2004.
When asked about the $178,000 tax lien on her former law firm, Montgomery said, “I don’t know, I don’t do my taxes. You would have to talk to my accountant or somebody…I can’t give you any details or an explanation.”
Montgomery then said she does not have an accountant. Her husband handles her business’ finances, she said.
Montgomery attributed the liens to a fluctuation in income but said her husband is making payments on her behalf.
“When you make a chunk of change, a whole lot of money, then they’ll look at you and the next year if you don’t make a lot of money, they want you to pay tax from the previous year,” she said. “So, if you don’t have it, which I don’t have it right now, obviously I definitely don’t have it because I’m not even working, but they’ll just make payment arrangements with you and you’ll just pay.”
Montgomery acknowledged that if she is elected as Circuit Court judge, there is a possibility her wages could be garnished to pay the lien.
“They probably could, if they decided I’m not making my monthly payments,” she said.
She added that since she is not currently employed, she does not have wages to garnish.
However, Montgomery said if she is elected garnishment would not be necessary because she intends on making the required payments.
“They wouldn’t have to garnish mine because I would just pay them just like I pay my other bills,” she said. “I don’t pay them but my husband pays them. All of us have bills.”
The Dispatch was unable to obtain the dollar amount of the individual payments. Calls to the local IRS office were unreturned.
Of the tax liens, Montgomery said, “I think there is a lot of people in America that owe taxes. The more you make, the more you owe.”
Sarah Fowler covered crime, education and community related events for The Dispatch.
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