Rep. Scott Taylor (R-VA) neglected to pay $11,842 in property taxes, interests and penalty charges on rental properties he owned, according to public records discovered by the Virginian-Pilot. His reason: he was busy and forgot.

Asked why the federal lawmaker “apparently ignored accumulating tax bills sent every three months since last fall,” Taylor’s spokesperson told the newspaper that his boss “got busy with everything going on. … It slipped his mind.”

“I think he just got caught up with everything in Washington. All the traveling and the primary and everything. It was just a lapse,” the spokesperson explained. “That’s what he said to me.”

Taylor, who has previously boasted of being a supporter of “the rule of law” said Friday morning that he has since paid the overdue taxes. “No excuses here,” he tweeted, adding the hashtag “#onlyhuman.” Still, his contrition was minimal, twice tweeting that the newspaper story was really a “hit piece” by Democrats and the outside political group American Bridge and predicting that they would “over play it (sic).”


Notably, Taylor showed little sympathy for a former Democratic Congressman who also came under scrutiny for failure to pay back taxes. In 2010, he tweeted out a Politico story about then-Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) resigning from his position as chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, commenting: It’s about time this tax cheat stepped down.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/33840.html

It's about time this tax cheat stepped down… — Scott Taylor (@Scotttaylorva) March 3, 2010

Amusingly, Taylor also tweeted a defense of Donald Trump’s 2016 debate boasts of his own personal tax avoidance, saying “So… he paid as little taxes as possible. Who doesn’t? Change the code.”