From O.J. to Dick Morris: Taxes Go Unpaid

JPMorgan Chase sent a $115,000 check to Wisconsin the day after USA TODAY called about an unpaid tax bill. The banking giant had a defunct partnership that Wisconsin said owed $5 million.

"We owe some taxes and penalties but not $5 million," bank spokeswoman Christine Holevas says. "This tax issue fell through the cracks, but we will work promptly to settle it." The partnership was removed from the state's list after the $115,000 check arrived.

Real estate developer Kent Hoggan of Stockton, Calif., says he amended his tax return Jan. 15 after appearing on California's list as owing $5.8 million in back taxes. "I've had losses that would eliminate this tax liability," he says.

Some tax delinquents say they have no way to pay what they owe.

Disbarred attorney Michael Bledsoe of Elk Grove Village, Ill., is his state's fifth-largest tax delinquent, owing $224,260.

He served time in prison for mishandling clients' money and tax evasion.

Now, he's trying to rebuild his life. After prison, he lived with his father and at a friend's house. He's trying to start a career in sales.

"I lost everything," he says. "How do I pay this?"

Sometimes They Are Just Wrong

The size of tax debts on the published lists can be overstated — or plain wrong. Dinah White of Fort Atkinson, Wis., says she owes $300,000, not the $1.3 million the state claims. "Where they got that number, who knows?" she says.

Even innocent people have a hard time getting off the list:

Al Copeland, founder of the Popeyes fried chicken chain, was listed as Georgia's second-largest tax delinquent, owing $5.5 million. The giant accounting firm KPMG tried for more than a year to get Copeland off the delinquent list.

Copeland, a flamboyant New Orleans icon, died of cancer March 23. Georgia mistakenly thought the life-long Louisiana resident lived in Georgia during the 1990s, says Grant Coleman, his tax attorney.

After an inquiry from USA TODAY, the state reviewed the case, removed Copeland's name and canceled his tax liens.

Bruce McNall is the former owner of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and a movie producer (Weekend at Bernie's). He pleaded guilty in 1994 to defrauding $236 million from banks.

The California Board of Equalization says he owes $7.3 million for unpaid sales tax on horses.

"That's an old debt that I thought was released in bankruptcy," McNall says. Bankruptcy trustee Todd Neilson says McNall is right — and the state is wrong. The trustee says the state was awarded $250,000 after a trial to settle the tax debt, and that amount has been paid.

Molly Wotring, a part-time elementary school worker in Hodges, S.C., typed her name in Google for fun last month. She was surprised to learn she was the fifth-biggest tax delinquent in South Carolina.

The state claimed she owed $225,253 in income taxes for the years 2000 to 2004, when she lived in Ohio. She says she got a cold reception when she called the taxpayer assistance hotline.

"I tried to tell the lady on the phone. She wasn't very nice," Wotring says.

On April 4, she went unannounced to the local tax collection office, armed with her old Ohio tax returns. An auditor apologized, she says. She is now off the list.