West Virginia Governor Jim Justice picks up his dog, Baby Dog, as he is finishing up his State of the Union address in the House of Representatives at the West Virginia State Capitol on Thursday, January 27, 2022 in Charleston, West Virginia.
Chris Daost | Charleston Gazette | AP
The U.S. government on Monday sued West Virginia Republican Sen. Jim Justice and his wife for $5.1 million in unpaid federal income taxes, penalties and interest through the 2009 tax year.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Beckley, West Virginia, alleges that “despite notices and demands to pay the assessed amount, James C. Justice II and Kathy L. Justice have ignored or refused to pay the full assessed amount to the United States.”
The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department’s Tax Division, asks a judge to enter judgment in favor of the couple against the United States for $5,164,739.75, an amount owed to the Internal Revenue Service as of Aug. 4, according to filings.
The lawsuit was filed nearly two months after the IRS reportedly filed an $8 million tax lien notice with a judge in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. One of the notices refers to a tax assessment dated Nov. 25, 2015, the same date as the assessment mentioned in the lawsuit filed Monday.
Politico, which broke the tax lien news on Oct. 10, noted that the IRS website states, “Generally, the IRS may seek to collect tax liability for up to 10 years from the date of assessment. A notice of federal tax lien may be filed at any time within that 10-year period.”
Tuesday marks the end of a decade that was supposed to begin on November 25, 2015.
Justice was elected to the Senate in November 2024, replacing independent Sen. Joe Manchin, who defected from the Democratic caucus earlier that year.
The coal mining heiress served as West Virginia’s governor from 2017 until becoming a senator in January.
The tax-related lawsuit comes weeks after a federal judge in Tennessee found Rexon Insurance Co. liable for more than $29 million in civil damages and prejudgment interest for breach of bond agreements related to its coal mining operations.
CNBC has reached out to the attorney general’s Senate office and the attorney who represented him for comment on the tax case.
