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Michael Jackson

DEA Agents Raid Michael Jacksons Doctors Office In Houston

Rumors are swirling around the possibility of manslaughter charges may be filed in the death of pop superstar Michael Jackson. Jackson’s personal doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray, is considered a “person of interest” in the case but has not been charged.

Raids at Dr. Murray’s office and storage unit in Houston on Wednesday raised eyebrows. Among the items removed from the storage unit by federal officials were notices from the IRS. You can read the entire list of items removed from the storage shed as evidence here, downloadable as a pdf.

Was Dr. Murray in some kind of trouble with the IRS? So far, there is no clear answer and the IRS does not comment on pending matters.

However, there has been speculation that Dr. Murray was in considerable financial difficulty. In addition to defaults in home loans and unpaid child support, there are at least three state tax liens which have been filed in Arizona and California against Dr. Murray, one as recently as 2003. Murray’s Nevada medical practice, Global Cardiovascular Associates, was ordered last year to pay court judgments totaling nearly half a million dollar to vendors and banks; at least two other lawsuits against the company are still pending.

Normally, no one would care about any of this. So the guy had some financial troubles, who cares? Apparently, the feds do. Speculation continues to build that Dr. Murray may have been involved in supplying Michael Jackson with unnecessary prescription drugs; if so, his activities may be linked to his financial troubles.

The doctor made headlines after it was revealed that he was the last person to be seen alive with Michael Jackson. Murray was considered to be Jackson’s full time personal doctor; he was hired by AEG Live to accompany Michael Jackson to London for his comeback series of concerts.

All of that said, why the feds would seize what would seem to be unrelated tax documents from Murray’s storage shed remains a mystery for now. I’ll update you as information becomes available.

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It’s Fix the Tax Code Friday! News reports continue to focus on the death of Michael Jackson, his memorial and his funeral. Enormous amounts of public resources have been dedicated to policing the memorial service, keeping Jackson’s family away from the press and investigating Jackson’s “alleged” drug use. Comparisons have been drawn to other public figures – and professional sports teams – who have relied on public dollars to police and protect them after championships and other notable moments in their lives. In some instances, such as the Lakers parade, funding is donated by the celebs in question or by fans. In others, funding has come out of the city’s general fund.

So today’s Fix the Tax Code Friday question is:

Should taxpayers bear the cost of protecting and policing private citizens (including sports teams) who require or merit (depending on your point of view) extra attention? Is there a threshold for who should be allowed extra policing for “free” – such as national champs – or should the super rich pay their own way? Or all private citizens equal when it comes to tax dollars?

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One of my recent “ask the taxgirl” questions involved whether Michael Jackson’s funeral expenses were deductible. When I paused to consider whether I wanted to post about Michael, a colleague kindly offered to address the issue on his blog at sofloridaestateplanning.com. The blog is authored by David Shulman, an attorney located in South Florida who focuses his practice on Wills, Trusts and Estates, and Tax Planning. David has been blogging other issues related to Michael Jackson, so I was more than happy to defer to him.

So are those expenses deductible? Check out David’s answer over at SoFloridaEstatePlanning.com and see. For the record, I concur with his answer!

Thanks, David!

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