By The Oregonian/OregonLive
People and businesses who fail to pay significant amounts of Oregon taxes could soon see their names plastered publicly on the state’s website.
The Oregon Department of Revenue on July 14 will begin publishing a list of delinquent taxpayers who owe at least $50,000 in state taxes.
The department plans to begin notifying affected taxpayers next week. Those who respond by paying their balance in full or making a payment arrangement with the state will avoid having their names listed.
“Affected taxpayers should contact us as soon as they receive a notice to resolve the debt,” Deanna Mack, collection division administrator for the Department of Revenue, said in a statement. “Publishing this list will support our efforts to collect the revenue that our state counts on.”
Along with publishing the names of delinquent taxpayers and businesses, the state will also publish the name of any person held personally liable for business debt, the city and state where the taxpayer resides, the lien identification number, the type of debt and the current amount due.
The 2019 Legislature approved Senate Bill 523, which allows the Department of Revenue to post such information online. The Department of Revenue had planned to launch the site in 2020 but held off because of the pandemic.
By coincidence, the launch is now coming after former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan resigned in the wake of news that she was moonlighting as a highly paid consultant for troubled cannabis company La Mota. As Willamette Week reported, La Mota was allowed to expand across Oregon as it racked up more than $1.5 million in unpaid state taxes, something that would have been made public on the state site had it launched sooner.
