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4 MSNBC hosts plagued by tax debt

It turns out Al Sharpton and Melissa Harris-Perry aren't the only MSNBC hosts who have outstanding tax debts.

The National Review reports that Touré Neblett, the co-host of MSNBC’s The Cycle, owes more than $59,000 in taxes, according to public records. New York issued a state tax warrant to Neblett and his wife for $46,862.68 in September 2012 and an additional warrant for $12,849.87 six months later.

The National Review also notes that New York last month filed a $4,948.15 tax warrant against former daytime host Joy-Ann Reid and her husband. Reid recently hosted an afternoon program on MSNBC and now serves as managing editor of theGrio.com.

These revelations come one week after the Winston-Salem Journal reported that MSNBC weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry and her husband owe about $70,000 in delinquent taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS filed a tax lien on the Perrys on April 6 for the outstanding debt, which is from 2013. Harris-Perry says that she and her husband have paid $21,721 toward the total owed and are continuing to pay it off.

Then there is the Rev. Al Sharpton. As The New York Times reported in November, Sharpton had "more than $4.5 million in current state and federal tax liens against him and his for-profit businesses." The same report found that Sharpton's taxes with the state of New York were growing, even as he and his National Action Network "repeatedly failed to pay travel agencies, hotels and landlords."

What strikes conservative critics about the trend of tax debts at MSNBC is the host's own rhetoric about taxes. The National Review rightly notes that MSNBC’s hosts and guests "regularly call for higher taxes on the rich, condemning wealthy individuals and corporations who don’t pay their taxes or make use of loopholes."

In 2012, Nesbitt criticized Republican politicians who were "afraid to vote for a modest tax increase of people who can totally afford it.” Last year, he tweeted, "Regressive taxation & tax-avoidance & union crushing & the financial corruption of legislation has fueled inequality more than hard work."

An MSNBC spokesperson declined to comment. All four MSNBC hosts are believed to be working on paying off their outstanding debt.