Celebrity Tax Troubles

It’s tax time in Tinseltown just like everywhere else in the United States. While their paychecks have significantly more zeros than the rest of ours and their property tends to be way more impressive, celebrities still have trouble when it comes to paying the IRS as they should. The following are just a few celebs who have run afoul of the tax man in recent years.

• Nic Cage has $6 million due in taxes, but that’s nothing compared to past bills. He owed approximately $14 million for unpaid taxes in his darkest hour.
• Al Pacino’s gotten in a bit of trouble with the IRS over his taxes. A lien filed in 2011 stated that the star owed $188,283.50 in back due taxes.
• Rapper Heavy D may be deceased, but TMZ reports he still owes the government $43,967.87. A tax attorney in Orange County can tell you that the government will have to go after Heavy D’s estate if they wish to get even a piece of what they are owed.
• The “lil” in Lil Kim’s name doesn’t have anything to do with back-owed taxes—from 2002 to 2009, she racked up $1,026,862.42 in tax debt.
• Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne owed the government major bank in 2011. They were more than $1.7 million in the hole to the IRS for unpaid taxes, but paid up when the IRS placed a lien on their home.
• Like mother and father, like daughter? Kelly Osbourne may be well-liked on various TV programs these days, but the State of California wasn’t pleased with her in 2011, when officials claimed she owed $30,000.
• Wage garnishments aren’t only for the unpaid spousal or child support. When rapper Nas owed the government $6 million, the IRS decided to garnish his wages to get paid.
• Wesley Snipes has actually gone to jail for his delinquent tax actions. Snipes has been serving time in a Pennsylvania prison since December 2010 for failure to file his tax returns.
• Also back in 2010, Hunger Games and American Beauty actor Wes Bentley and estranged wife Jennifer Quanz owed $200,000 in past-due taxes.
• Rapper Method Man was actually arrested in 2009 over his failure to pay $33,000 in back taxes.