The State of West Virginia has withdrawn two liens against The Greenbrier Hotel, which is owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family, that were originally put in place over unpaid sales taxes.
The two liens withdrawn this month in Greenbrier County together amount to $897,615.
One lien of $566,800 was withdrawn on July 16. Another lien of $330,815 was withdrawn July 8.
A tax lien is a legal claim against the assets of a person or business who fails to pay taxes owed.
Merchants collect sales taxes from customers but that’s never their money. It’s the customer’s money flowing to the government with the merchant in a middle role to pass those collections — or remit them — on to the tax official.
Vendors such as The Greenbrier Hotel are supposed to impose sales taxes at the time of purchase. West Virginia sales taxes are required to be file and remitted monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on an assigned filing frequency.
Earlier this year, Feb. 5, the state tax department filed seven liens for unpaid sales taxes amounting to $3.5 million owed by The Greenbrier Hotel Corp., the ownership group for the historic West Virginia resort.
The amounts due to the state had built up over a period of months from late last June to November.
Gov. Justice — patriarch of the family that owns The Greenbrier and chief executive overseeing the state Tax Department — said in April that the business had entered a payment plan to straighten out the liens.
“There are two, you know, payment plans with the tax department and they’re completely current. All’s good in the neighborhood there. And the other thing is, any taxes due — any kind of other taxes due, and everything — are all paid,” Justice said in April on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
Records online with Greenbrier County show that one lien was released in April. That one amounting to $388,540 dates to last June 30.
But the same records show that a new lien was added into the bucket in April. It is for $518,006.37 and reflects sales taxes that were supposed to be paid by last Dec. 21.
So, counting the two most recent actions this month, the three oldest liens have been withdrawn. That amounts to $1,286,155.
That leaves four of the original liens plus the one that was added later, amounting to $2,752,907 still owed.
When Justice was first elected governor, he released a letter to state employees saying the placement of his family’s assets into a blind trust would be very complicated but his expectation was that his businesses would act lawfully and ethically.
“I assure you there is absolutely no expectation on behalf of the members of my family of receiving any special treatment,” Justice said then. “I expect all laws, regulations and policies to be strictly adhered to and enforced with respect to any business associated with my family.”
