Taxation & Estate Planning

More than Meets the Eye

By Darrin Mish

Young, handsome, smart and popular. That's how you would describe Patrick Canon. Merely 38 years old but already with 12 years' experience at being in the city council in Charlotte in 2005, Canon was a step away from being elected mayor. But to everyone's shock, he abruptly pulled out of the election in May citing personal reasons of two deaths among relatives and a renewed desire to be with his family. But was there more to it than meets the eye?

After a four year absence Canon is back trying to win a seat in the council again. Now the complete truth has been revealed about the mysterious circumstances that led to Canon's pullout from the mayoral race four years ago. The IRS had issued a series of liens against him totaling more than $193,000 starting from August 2003. Records show that in that month, the IRS slapped a lien for $37,804 against Canon, followed by another for $53, 688 in June and one more for $17,674 a month after that. In total, there were liens amounting to $193, 553 issued against Canon from 2003 to 2008. Since then, he had paid them all off, the most recently last December. Now Patrick Canon is back.

Canon's financial woes began when an accountant in his business, E-Z Parking was late in preparing his business' tax returns. He now acknowledges that it was his financial problems, together with a desire to spend more time with his family that greatly contributed to his decision to pull out from the mayoral race in 2005.

It was a severe blow to Democrats' hopes of seeing one of their own as mayor. At that time, there was a growing sense of anticipation that after 6 terms, the Democrats had finally found in Canon a worthy challenger to incumbent Republican mayor Pat McCrory. Canon was so popular that his presence in the race for mayor deterred another Democrat, Malcolm Graham from joining the contest. That year also saw significant Democrat victories in other parts of the country. John Kerry won by a wide margin in Mecklenburg County, as did Erskine Bowles in his home county. Then came Canon's shock pullout.

As a result of Canon's withdrawal, the election for mayor became a contest between Republican Pat McCrory and Democrat Craig Madans. Pat McCrory won hands down.

But Canon has no regrets withdrawing from the mayoral race four years ago. To him, it was a matter of personal integrity to be able to satisfy all his personal IRS liens before assuming public office.

Now that Patrick Canon is back trying to win a seat in the council, we wish him all the best.

Darrin T. Mish is a veteran, nationally recognized tax attorney who has focused on providing IRS help to taxpayers for almost two decades. He regularly travels the country training other attorneys, CPAs and enrolled agents on how to handle their toughest cases with the IRS. He is highly ranked among the top attorneys in the country, with an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and a perfect 10 on Avvo.com. Martindale-Hubbell has also honored him with a listing in their Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He is a member of the American Society of IRS Problem Solvers and the Tax Freedom Institute. With clients on every continent but Antarctica, he has what it takes to solve your IRS problems no matter where you live in the world. If you would like more information about his practice and how he can help you, please call his office at (813) 229-7100 or toll free at 1-888-GET-MISH.

Full post as published by IRS Problem Solver Blog on September 23, 2009 (boomark / email).