stub
HomeTaxesCelebrity Tax Troubles

Celebrity Tax Troubles

It’s officially tax season! Thankfully, our financial goings-on are kept private unlike the stars that grace our screens and magazine covers. Here are five celebrities who have run into trouble with the IRS in recent years with their less-than-legal tax maneuvers.

1. Wesley Snipes

The Blade and Demolition Man actor was sentenced to three years in prison back in 2008, after being found guilty of three counts of willfully failing to file federal tax returns between 1999 and 2001.

Snipes unpaid tax bill was around $15 million, which he owed because of false tax refund applications and money kept in offshore accounts. His tax advisers Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas Rosile were also jailed, for 10 years and 54 months respectively.

2. Nicolas Cage

Star of such films as Face-Off, Con Air and Leaving Las Vegas, Nicolas Cage faced accusations of tax evasion in 2009.

The IRS filed a claim that Cage had unpaid tax bills amounting to around $6 million in 2007. Cage denied any wrong-doing on his part, blaming his business manager for the tax errors. The IRS foreclosed on the actor’s Las Vegas home in November that year.

3. Prince

The artist formerly known as Prince, then the love symbol, was reported to have run into tax problems last year, after Carver County tax records showed that his PRN Music Cop. had unpaid tax bills amounting to £227,000 for the previous year.

4. Annie Leibovitz

Legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz, best known for her celebrity portraits, was met with tax troubles in 2009, with public records showing the shutterbug faced tax liens of $1.4 million over the previous two years.

5. Chris Tucker

Comedian and actor Chris Tucker, best known for his roles in the Rush Hour movies, was last year served with IRS documents relating to $11 million, according to TMZ.com, for the years 2001, 2002 and from 2004 to 2006.

Though the US doesn’t have a straight equivalent of a cash ISA, a savings account of any kind is always a sensible idea to help you pay for the little surprises that life throws our way.

Would you be able to foot the auto repair bills if your car’s transmission failed? Would you have the cash to tide you over if you found yourself unable to work for an extended period because of sickness or injury? If you’re thinking to yourself no, then now may be a good time to look into it!

RELATED ARTICLES

Most Popular

Recent Comments