Ford Spox: Forget What I Said — He Has Paid New York Taxes

Former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D)
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The Harold Ford Jr. camp is changing its story after Ford, a prospective Senate candidate, told a Buffalo TV station that he has never filed a New York State tax return, even though he’s been commuting to the city since 2007 to work for Merrill Lynch.

Ford’s comments were initially echoed by his spokeswoman, Tammy Sun, who last week told Gawker that Ford “will file a New York tax return in April for the first time.”

But now they’re telling a different version.

“Harold has always paid New York taxes and filed the appropriate New York tax returns for all income earned in New York. And as a New York resident as of 2009, he is filing a resident tax return this year,” Sun told TPM in a statement.

And a Ford spokeswoman now tells TPM that Ford has filed as a nonresident since 2007, when he started working for Merrill Lynch. He filed those returns on time — not, she said, in the few days since Gawker first reported the story.

Ford, a former congressman from Tennessee who is considering a primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), had been commuting between the two states until last year, when he decided to become an official resident of New York.

Sun also told TPM that because Ford isn’t yet a candidate, he has a right to privacy. But, she said, he will “comply with all financial disclosure requirements expected of a candidate for U.S Senate.”

Senate candidates are not required to disclose their tax records.

As Gawker points out today, another Ford spokesperson, Davidson Goldin, was on damage control this weekend, telling the Daily News that Ford has been paying New York State income tax. Ford himself said the same Sunday on Meet the Press.

Asked about paying taxes last week, Ford told a Buffalo station, “I’m in the process. Let me be clear. I pay my quarterly estimates. … I will file a return for the first time, [for] last year, come April, when taxes are to be filed.”

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