You dont know how this tax lien was created. Perhaps he was forced to pay capital gains on property that he was selling as part of a divorce settlement or whatever. Or he could be like the people in the high tech industry that got paid in stock options. The value of these for tax purposes is based on the stock price when the shares were issued, not when they can be sold. With the high tech sell off there were many paper millionaires that found their shares were worthless but they owned hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes on money they had never received.
Before you attack someone for not being up to date on their taxes, why dont you atleast be responsible for writing checks for estimated tax payments of 20,000 per quarter. Remember this is on top of your withholding.
Oh, yes, I do. You are the one who doesn't know what you're talking about.