Unreported IRS liens raise questions about Fiore’s state disclosures

In 2012, an Assembly candidate named Michele Fiore filed a state disclosure required of those running for office.

Her disclosure, filed on that March 26, required her to list each creditor owed $5,000 or more. It said: “None.”

The same day, the Internal Revenue Service filed a $76,346.23 lien against Always There 4 You, one of Fiore’s home health care businesses, public records show. Fiore disclosed that she owned the company, but didn’t report the tax debt, owed from the quarter that ended March 31, 2011.

Fiore’s disclosures as an assemblywoman show that she never listed the IRS as a creditor, even when faced with liens totaling more than $1 million filed against her or her businesses.

That raises questions about whether Fiore, now in her second Assembly term, properly followed state law when filling out her disclosure forms, which are filed under penalty of perjury with the Nevada secretary of state.

State law requires a candidate or official to disclose all debts of $5,000 or more, except for home mortgages or loans for personal vehicles.

Fiore is now seeking the Republican nomination in the 3rd Congressional District, an open race that has attracted seven Republican candidates and six Democratic candidates. As a congressional candidate, Fiore doesn’t have to report tax debts on federal disclosures.

When asked about the disclosure requirements in the context of IRS debts, Wayne Thorley, deputy secretary of state for elections, said he could point only to what’s in the law. The office doesn’t have the staff or resources to compare information in disclosures against other publicly available information such as liens, Thorley said.

Fiore, 45, didn’t specify why the IRS debts weren’t reported, but expressed confidence her paperwork is in order as it’s filed by professionals and an accountant.

“My paperwork is just peachy if it’s got the stamp of approval of my staff,” she said. “We file what we’re supposed to file and we disclose what we’re supposed to disclose.”

DISCLOSURE QUESTIONS

The IRS has filed nearly two dozen tax liens for more than $1 million since 2003 against Fiore or her home health care companies, public records reviewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal show.

Nine liens totaling $270,462.88 have been cleared, records filed with the Clark County recorder’s office show. Thirteen liens totaling $1.04 million remain outstanding.

The IRS filed a lien for $91,616 on March 20, 2014. The sums were assessed by the IRS in December 2013 for money owed during different quarterly reporting periods in 2011 through 2013. The lien remains open.

Less than a year later, Fiore filed a state disclosure in January 2015, reporting no creditor.

She has listed no creditors every year since 2012, when she ran and was elected to her first Assembly term.

Fiore’s troubles with the IRS led incoming Assembly Speaker John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas, to remove her from her post as Taxation Committee chairwoman in December 2014.

At the time, he said Fiore’s explanation of her IRS problems were “unacceptable” and “left unanswered questions.”

Fiore said then that she was “100 percent” compliant with the IRS and owes less than $200,000 to the agency. She has blamed the problems on a former bookkeeper.

Asked for an update Wednesday on the liens in light of her congressional run, Fiore said: “Here’s my comment with regard to the IRS: I pay my taxes — period.”

She characterized it as an old issue that’s come up in past campaigns.

“We’ve got to get something new for this campaign,” she said. “Every campaign that I’ve ever been on, it’s the IRS.”

The IRS hasn’t cleared any liens since Fiore’s comments in December 2014.

An IRS spokesman declined to comment on the liens, citing privacy laws.

CONGRESSIONAL DISCLOSURE

Fiore didn’t list any IRS debts on her federal disclosure for congressional candidates, filed in February. That doesn’t mean she’s square with her taxes, though. Congressional candidates aren’t required to disclose tax debts on the disclosures.

Fiore’s filing, which covers her income from Jan. 1, 2014, through Nov. 30, 2015, shows Fiore’s income is modest.

In 2014, she reported $22,873 in salary from her home health care business Always There Personal Care and $1,609 from the Legislature. In 2015, she reported a legislative salary of $32,133.40.

Fiore also received $7,153 last year in rent from a property she owns in Parker, Colorado. The house is valued at between $500,001 and $1 million in her report, which requires only ranges of values for assets.

She lists one debt: a mortgage on her Colorado property of $250,001 to $500,000.

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904. Find @BenBotkin1 on Twitter.