Although I'm not a fan of reality TV, In full disclosureI'll tell you that while idling at the supermarket check-out line, myspeed-reading preferences run from the National Enquirer to Star magazine.
The adventures of tabloid regulars like Jersey Shore'sresident idiot, "Snooki" Polizzi, provide a refreshing distractionfrom my daughter's exorbitant college tuition bills or the condition of my201(k).
Therefore, sensing that there are others out there whoshare my schadenfreude with errant celebrities, I'm not surprised that"Taxes of the Rich and Dumb" continues to be one of the most visitedlinks on WebCPA.com.
For those unfamiliar with it, you can find it here:
Because when it comes to show business and tax problems,the stories just sort of write themselves.
Another case in point.
Actor Chris Tucker, who, given his marginal talents, has,to no one's astonishment, not garnered a TV or movie role in three years, andin addition to a stalled career, now owes the IRS more than $11.5 million.
Tucker, who ham-handed it through a trio of "RushHour" movies with international chop-socky co-star Jackie Chan,incredibly, received some $45 million for the last two sequels alone.
On a personal level, I'm wondering that if Tucker putdown "actor" on his 1040 form under occupation (in the event he evenfiled one) how that didn't trigger an audit.
But I digress.
I wonder if it occurred to him that news reports of hisobscene salaries that appeared in various publications or even on AccessHollywood would tend to garner a fair bit of attention from the tax-collectionfolks.
It's amazing how frequently celebrities ignore themandates of the 16th Amendment or are somehow counseled into believing thatparticular piece of legislation doesn't apply to them (for more on this subjectsee: Snipes, Wesley).
But to be fair, celebrities hardly have the franchise ongullibility or naiveté when it comes to being shepherded into illegal schemesto avoid paying income taxes.
Nor does vigorous prosecution appear to eradicate ordeter the legions of fraudulent tax-avoidance promoters who tell thosefrightfully uninformed parties exactly what they want to hear.
Recently four of eight promoters of a tax-and-debtelimination sham were sentenced to an aggregate 36 years in prison following afederal trial in Pensacola, Fla.
The defendants pushed their fraudulent tax avoidanceschemes through an entity known as Pinnacle Quest International, which apparentlyserved as an umbrella organization that peddled tax elimination scams for feesstarting at $10,000.
I know I'm only a humbly paid editor, but to me, I thinkI would opt to pay my tax obligations as opposed to forking over $10,000 notto.
The point is this. There will always be people whobelieve they are somehow excluded or legally excused from paying taxes. Andthere will always be willing aiders and abettors to help foster that misguidedbelief.
If anyone needs a refresher course, you can probablycontact the convicted PQI defendants who will have a lot of free time on theirhands over the next decade or so.
Or Wesley Snipes, whose next action movie will probablynot begin filming until roughly 2013.
