This was a busy week in tax relief and IRS news. The stories that caught our attention ranged from how long to keep IRS tax records, to celebrity tax woes and finding tax debt solutions to the pro’s and cons of IRS prepared returns.
This week started with a helpful post titled: Tax Relief Tips for How Long to Keep IRS Records. A general rule of thumb guideline suggests that
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Terrell Owens, a six-time NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver, has caught an enormous tax bill from the Internal Revenue Service.
According to celebrity news website TMZ, Owens — popularly known by his initials, T.O. — owes $430,000 in unpaid taxes for the years 2007 and 2009.
During the years Owens racked up the IRS debt, he had lucrative contracts to play football for the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills.
Since not
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Rapper Fat Joe, whose real name is Joseph Cartagena, pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to file tax returns with the IRS, admitting that he didn’t file the returns despite having earned $3.7 million in income.
Cartagena, 42, of Miami Beach, Fla., failed to file a tax return for the years 2007 to 2010. During that time, he received income for his musical performances as well as royalties on the
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The year is ending, and this is the time for tax cheats and debtors to come clean.
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Charlie Sheen spent some time recently with Lindsay Lohan.
The two actors, both controversial and sources of tabloid fodder, were on the set of Scary Movie 5.
According to news reports, Lohan told Sheen about her tax problem. She owes, according to previous reports, as much as a quarter of a million dollars in back taxes
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Joe Francis, an American entrepreneur and film producer best known for producing the Girls Gone Wild series, has filed a lawsuit against his accounting firm, alleging that the company involved him in bogus tax shelters.
After the Internal Revenue Service discovered Francis’ use of these tax shelters, it cost him more than $12 million, according to celebrity news website TMZ.
Francis’ lawsuit against BDO Seldman alleges that the company admitted to criminal
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The IRS has been busting celebrities. But you and your neighbors aren’t safe from the taxman either.
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O.J. Simpson will be remembered for many things.
He was a football player.
He was a product spokesman and actor.
He was an accused murderer who was found not guilty in a criminal trial only to be found guilty later in a civil one.
He was an armed robber who went after sports memorabilia.
But there’s one more thing
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A Business Week article titled “Prince Failed to Comply With IRS Summons Over Taxes, U.S. Says” shows just how far worldwide taxing authorities are willing to go to collect what they are due. According to the article, Prince Rogers Nelson known as recording artist Prince, is in need of some tax relief because he did not comply with an IRS summons sent on behalf of French tax authorities who are
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Singer R. Kelly owes the Internal Revenue Service a whopping $4.8 million in back taxes for income from the years 2005 to 2010.
“R. Kelly is in the process of working everything out with the government and is confident that all his obligations will be satisfied,” a representative for Kelly told the celebrity news website TMZ.
Referred to as the “King of R&B,” Kelly is among the world’s best-known rhythm and blues
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It has been an interesting week in tax news this final week of 2011. The last week of the year is always a big one in the tax relief industry since we have just days to take action to lower our 2011 tax bill. Here are  some of the top headlines that caught my attention this week:
IRS sues Yankees’ Hal Steinbrenner over tax refund
New York Yankees
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Washington Redskins wide receiver Santana Moss has had an up and down week. On Sunday, Moss caught two passes for 40 yards with a touchdown in the Washington Redskins’ 23-10 win over the New York Giants. On a down note, the Detroit News reported that the elite receiver owes the IRS $258,017 in back taxes. According the source, the IRS filed a tax lean in November against Moss’s $5.2
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Celebrity rapper and actor Ja Rule was sentenced to 28 months in prison and ordered to pay 1.1 million dollars in unpaid taxes on Monday. Ja Rule was quoted by the Associated Press as saying; “I was a young man who made a lot of money — I’m getting a little choked up — I didn’t know how to deal with these finances, and I didn’t have people to guide
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Actor Wesley Snipes’ request for an appeal for a 3-year prison term was rejected by the Supreme Court in the beginning of June. Snipes was sentenced to prison until 2013 after his 2008 trial conviction of three misdemeanor charges of willful failure to file income tax returns from 1999 to 2001. Tax Resolution first blogged about Snipes’ IRS tax problems here.
If you owe money to the IRS, especially $25,000 or
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Earlier this week, I kicked off the Tax Resolution Tax Day Countdown with Russ and Sully on the Big Biz Show by talking about celebrity tax woes and what we can learn from them.
Unlike what the tabloids may suggest, celebrities don’t get better or worse treatment from the IRS than regular Joe Six-Packs. But what IS different is that the IRS leverages the celebrity of the name as a deterrent
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Is any publicity really good publicity?
This year alone, celebrity tax woes has caught taxpayers’ eyes from coast to coast and even abroad. Earlier this month, our team’s national tax expert Brian Compton was quoted in HowStuffWorks on how celebrities get in IRS trouble and why average taxpayers need to beware.
According to the HowStuffWorks article, celebrities meet their tax problems in various ways: “the oblivious (Nic Cage: I’m just an entertainer!),
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Wesley Snipes is going to prison.
For three years.
For unpaid back taxes.
You know who I’m talking about. Snipes, the star of Blade and White Men Can’t Jump, was convicted of willfully failing to pay taxes on $38 million of income for the tax years 1999 to 2001.
After a judge rejected his appeal, Snipes was ordered to turn himself into federal authorities and begin his three-year prison sentence.
People who track tax protestors
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