Melissa Gilbert to Pay Off Owed Taxes By 2024, Campaign Says

Actress-turned-politician Melissa Gilbert, the former Little House on the Prairie actress who is seeking a Michigan congressional seat in 2016, will pay off the $470,000 she owes in state and federal tax liens by 2024, her campaign said Tuesday.

“Melissa was caught in a perfect storm of financial difficulty, which is why she initiated an honest conversation with the IRS,” the campaign said in a statement to the Detroit Free Press. “Together they set up a payment plan that will allow her to pay back her federal taxes over approximately 8 1/2 years and her California taxes over approximately 46 months.”

The 51-year-old announced Monday that she would seek a seat in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District as a Democrat in her first political campaign ever, though her tax liens were first reported in June. Republication Rep. Mike Bishop currently holds the seat.

Gilbert, a former president of the Screen Actors Guild, had a $127,752 lien filed against her and her former husband in Los Angeles as far back as 2005, according to legal records, with others filed since then.

[Free Press]