State Rep. Jeanette Jamieson, an accountant and tax preparer who serves on the committee that writes tax legislation, landed on Georgia's delinquent taxpayer list Friday for owing $45,734, according to the Georgia Department of Revenue.

The Toccoa Democrat has until March 15 to pay the state taxes under a consent agreement reached with the Revenue Department, Jamieson said.

Ben Gray/AJC (ENLARGE)

Rep. Jeanette Jamieson has agreed to pay her $45,734 tax bill by the March 15 deadline.

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Jamieson, who has served in the Legislature since 1985, said Friday that the responsibilities of her public office have been a distraction that resulted in carelessness.

"Sometimes when you are so busy looking after everybody else's business, you don't pay as much attention to your own as you should," said Jamieson, reached at Jamieson Accounting and Tax Services, the business she owns and manages in Toccoa, in northeast Georgia.

"I think that is really where I dropped the ball in my own personal matter. I have learned a valuable lesson from it, needless to say," she said.

The delinquent taxes date back to 1998 and span eight years, Jamieson said. She said she does not know what prompted an audit by the state Revenue Department.

Jamieson could not vouch for filing her annual tax returns in a timely manner.

"I don't know without checking whether all of them were filed and whether they were timely filed or not," she said.

Jamieson appealed the department's initial findings to an administrative law judge.

"Frankly, I challenge anybody to go back for eight years and find all of the information they need to answer an audit," Jamieson said. "Nonetheless, it is all resolved now, I'm happy to say. We have reached an agreement, and the taxes will be paid."

Jamieson said she has paid federal income taxes.

Jamieson is the latest of at least a dozen state lawmakers of both parties, who, since 2003, have run afoul of the Revenue Department for failing to pay state income taxes. Her name, which appears as Mary J. Jamieson, is included on a long list of tax delinquents posted on the revenue department's Web site (www.dor.ga.gov).

In January, a Fulton County grand jury indicted former state Rep. Chuck Scheid, a Republican from Woodstock, for failing to pay 2003 taxes and not filing a 2005 income tax return.

Jamieson serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, which handles tax laws. She is also on the Education and Human Relations and Aging committees.

"I obviously dropped the ball and the fault is mine and mine only," Jamieson said.