Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., paid a delinquent property tax bill in Florida Tuesday, only hours after the Republican presidential candidate said he wants to use fire, a wood chipper or a chainsaw to “kill” the U.S. tax code.
Wearing a t-shirt that says “Detroit Republican,” Paul goes after the tax code in a number of creative ways in a web video his campaign unveiled Tuesday, promoting his plan for a “one-page tax code” with a flat income tax of 14 percent.
In the video, titled “How would you kill the tax code?,” Paul says he is “trying to kill the tax code, all 70,000 pages of it.”
Meanwhile, records show that Paul, through a company he created, owns a half interest in a condominium in Destin, Fla., that had $2,489 in delinquent property taxes as of Tuesday morning. The original $2,159,14 tax bill on the condo, which has an assessed value of $161,000, was due March 31.
A few hours after the Herald-Leader asked Paul’s presidential campaign about the tax bill, a representative of the Okaloosa County tax collector’s office confirmed that the past-due bill had been paid Tuesday afternoon.
Paul co-owns the condo with his brother-in-law, David Ashby, which Paul and Ashby purchased from relatives in 2007.
Paul’s portion of the condominium is owned by Alchemy LLC, a company he listed on his Senate financial disclosure forms.
Youngman reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader
Twitter: @samyoungman
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