Recent Celebrity Tax Issues-Tax Liens and Prison

Press recognition can often do wonders for a celebrity career but not when the subject matter features IRS tax issues. The latest celebrities in this weeks making headlines for owing the tax man are singer Kelis (famous for the song “Milkshake”) and rapper Beanie Sigel.

Kelis’ tax troubles were recently highlighted in a TMZ article entitled Coast to Coast Tax Liens, listing her following 2004 & 2010 tax issues where she is facing:

A New York tax lien for $330,426.71.
Alleged back taxes to the State of California to the tune of $61,737.29
Federal tax debt of $213,932.02 to Uncle Sam for the same years.

Her grand tax total is $606,096.12 in unpaid taxes.

Rapper Beanie Sigel is facing even more severe consequences for his. Siegel (real name Dwight Grant) is headed to prison for two years plus one year of supervised release for failing to file federal taxes from 2003 through 2005. A philly.com article Rapper Beanie Sigel gets two years for tax evasion reported that Sigel, who earned more than $2.2 million in taxable income between 1999 and 2005, owed the IRS a whopping $728,536 for those six years. (Sigel was not charged with tax offenses for the 1999 through 2002 tax years because the statute of limitations had expired.) In addition to his time behind bars, Sigel is also obliged to pay all back taxes, interest and penalties.

Both these entertainers may have been victimized by untrustworthy family or business professionals who took advantage of their trust and loyalty and used wealth for their own personal gain. Singer Rihanna currently finds herself in a similar situation of deceit. But IRS could care less if “advisors” caused tax debt issues. They hold taxpayers personally responsible for their own taxes and go after any and all tax cheats in spite of their celebrity status.

One hopes the recent celebrities needing tax relief have hired a team of expert IRS tax attorneys to negotiate their case with the IRS and carve out a financial way forward for them. The IRS does not roll out the red carpet for anyone, let alone a non-compliant celebrity.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Tags: Back Taxes, IRS penalties, IRS tax attorneys, IRS tax issues