IRS says Rep. Linsky owes $154,000 in taxes

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

THE INTERNAL REVENUE Service has filed a hefty lien against a state representative for nonpayment of taxes, but the lawmaker said Tuesday that he has already paid off some of the bottom line, expects the lien to be lifted, and vowed to give the federal government “every dime” he owes.

“I’ve been on a payment plan for quite a while,” Rep. David Linsky told the News Service, referring to a period of “several years.”

The lien, filed July 16 in the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds, itemizes four years of the Natick Democrat’s unpaid federal income tax: tax year 2016 ($52,623.65), tax year 2017 ($11,005.34), tax year 2018 ($53,304.48), and tax year 2019 ($37,133.83).

While the lien states that Linsky owes a balance of $154,067.30, he said that was the original amount and he has already paid a portion of it.

“So it is less than that now. I don’t have a current number,” he said.

Linsky, a practicing lawyer, said he is actively appealing the lien on the grounds that he is up-to-date in his payment plan installments.

“My understanding is that they routinely [file a lien] in all cases … to protect their interests, and when one shows that one is current with their payment plan, then they remove it. So I expect that this will be removed,” Linsky said.

The multiple years of tax bills piled up as “the result of a number of family issues and business issues, unrelated to my work as a state representative,” he told the News Service on Tuesday. “And I emphasize that I am on a payment plan with the IRS paying back every dime and am currently current, to their satisfaction.”

He referenced family health issues that he said he did not wish to discuss out of consideration for his family’s privacy.

Asked about the business-related financial problems he mentioned, Linsky said, “It’s a combination of factors, principally due to family and health issues.”

A former Middlesex County prosecutor, the Boston College Law School graduate now operates a solo practice in Natick specializing in criminal defense, motor vehicle law, and domestic relations.

A federal tax lien such as this one is made on the taxpayer’s property and rights to property. But Linsky does not own real estate, he said; he rents his home.

The Natick Democrat won a 1999 special election to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Douglas Stoddart, a Republican who had been appointed to a judgeship. Linsky has subsequently won re-election 11 times, including two election cycles during which he was delinquent in his federal income tax.

In the Legislature, he has been a staunch advocate for gun controls and currently serves as vice chair of the Revenue Committee, which reviews bills dealing with taxation. He served until this January as chair of the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight.

Linsky said he is current with his state taxes.