AOC Still Hasn't Paid 2017 State Taxes Owed From Her Failed Business

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a tax warrior. She wants rich people to pay their “fair share” to the IRS and has been a consistent advocate for high taxes since she first ran for Congress in 2018.

But AOC, who makes $174,000 a year as a member of Congress, still owes the state of New York taxes for a failed business she owned until 2016. The tax bill — $1,618 in 2017 — has increased 52% in 2022 to $2,461.

At first, AOC claimed the first she heard of the tax bill was after she was sworn in. The Squad member told the New York Post that she would pay the bill, but her office later said the tax bill was “in error.”

Washington Examiner:

It’s not clear whether Ocasio-Cortez is still contesting the tax bill or if she intends to pay what her former business owes to the state.

Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not return a request for comment.

Ocasio-Cortez presumably has the means to pay back her overdue business taxes. The lawmaker has raked in a combined $522,000 before taxes from her congressional salary during her first three years in the House of Representatives.

AOC can certainly talk the talk. She has loudly and persistently used incendiary, anti-capitalist rhetoric to denounce those who she thinks don’t pay enough in taxes.

But can she walk the walk?

In one of her first moves as a member of Congress, Ocasio-Cortez called for tax rates up to 70% for high-income earners to fund her sweeping Green New Deal climate policy proposal.

She also made headlines when she wore a white gown emblazoned with “Tax the Rich” in bold red text to the Met Gala in September 2021.

The woman who designed the dress, Aurora James, is no stranger to New York state tax warrants. James’s company has been hit with 15 state tax warrants since 2015, three of which were due to its failure to withhold income taxes totaling nearly $15,000 from its employees.

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Perhaps we’re being too hard on the congresswoman. After all, almost everyone runs afoul of the taxman at some point in their lives. Maybe we should cut AOC some slack and let our erring sister go in peace?

Nah.