IRS Targets Range From Star Actor to Joe Six-Pack
If you think the Internal Revenue Service only goes after A-List celebrities, a
review of recent IRS actions shows just how wrong you are.
By Michael Rozbruch
With celebrity news and gossip shows dominating
the Internet and the airways, it's no surprise that
actors and various other celebrities in tax trouble
receive a lot of attention in the news media.
Just watch Entertainment Tonight or skip over to
TMZ.com. The news of tax troubles is easy to fi nd.
There's Hollywood A-Lister and Academy Award
winner Nicholas Cage. He owes $6.6 million to the
IRS, according to a tax lien filed against a property
the actor owns in Louisiana.
Then there's Darryl Strawberry, a bad boy of Major
League Baseball who helped the New York Mets win
the 1986 World Series. Now a contestant on Donald
Trump's NBC show Celebrity Apprentice, the former
baseball slugger owes more than $500,000 to Uncle
Sam in unpaid income taxes.
The IRS isn't just interested in living, breathing
celebrities with tax debt, either. A deceased one can
do just fine.
In October, the Internal Revenue Service filed a tax
lien against the estate of Vickie Lynn Marshall in
Los Angeles County. Better known as Anna Nicole
Smith, Marshall died in Florida in February 2007.
The federal government says her estate owes
$125,112.86.
There's a point to this: In my experience, many
people believe the IRS goes after a specific group of
people. Some believe the myth that IRS only goes
after wealthy celebrities. Others believe the myth
that the IRS only goes after average folks, the Joe
Six-Packs.
You can plainly see the IRS is more than willing to
go after big-name celebrities - from Nicholas Cage
to Darryl Strawberry to Anna Nicole Smith.
But you can also plainly see the IRS is willing to go
after average people, maybe even your neighbor.
There's Blainey J. Nicholas, a 43-year-old doctor in
New Orleans who received five years of probation
and a $20,000 fine for failing file a tax return that
reported the $200,000 he had earned.
Then there's Leonard Widman, a 54-year-old
developer from Sherman, Conn. He was sentenced
to a year in prison for not paying $170,000 in
taxes.
Even people caught doing one crime can end up
finding themselves with tax charges to boot. Take
the case of Mary R. Storer, 40, formerly of Wood
River, Ill. She was caught embezzling funds from
her employer and losing that money at the local
casino. Of course, the IRS learned she didn't report
that embezzled income and hit her with tax charges
as well.
Many myths circulate about the IRS over who gets
caught cheating on taxes.
If you've never known a person with tax trouble,
you might think to yourself that it couldn't happen
to you - that you can't get caught.
From the stories above, however, it should be clear
that no matter how famous or how unknown you
are, the IRS will eventually catch you if you're
cheating.
Michael Rozbruch is a Certified Tax Resolution Specialist,
a member of the American Society of IRS Problem
Solvers and a Maryland CPA. You can contact him at
866-477-7762 to obtain a free subscription to his
newsletter titled The IRS Times & Inquirer.
