Outlaw country music singer-songwriter David Allan Coe has been ordered to pay $980,911.86 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after pleading guilty to tax charges. According to the IRS, Coe failed to pay $466,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties between 2008 and 2013 by either failing to file his individual income tax returns or failing to pay the taxes due.
Coe is perhaps best known for penning the 1977 classic song, “Take This Job And Shove It,” co-written and popularized by fellow country singer Johnny Paycheck. The song struck a chord with Americans who were just easing out of a recession, hitting #1 on billboard charts and inspiring a 1981 movie of the same name. The movie starred Robert Hays, Art Carney, and Barbara Hershey, and even featured Coe in a bit role.
It’s everything you’d expect. Country music. Beer. Monster trucks. And lots of guys challenging the establishment, a key part of the outlaw country culture touted by the likes of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker, and Johnny Cash.
However, Coe might have taken his anti-authority sentiment a bit too far. According to court documents, Coe performed at least 100 concerts each year from 2008 through 2013. During that time, Coe either failed to file tax returns or failed to pay his taxes. Instead of paying his taxes, Coe allegedly spent his income on other debts and gambling.
At some point, the IRS caught up with him and in 2009, Coe, who had typically been paid for performances by wire, devised a scheme to continue to not pay up: he requested that he be paid for performances upfront in cash in order to avoid an IRS levy on his back account. There was just one caveat: no $50 bills. Coe reportedly believed that $50 bills were bad luck and would not gamble with them.
Coe continued not to pay his taxes even after he knew that IRS was aware of his tax debts, according to court documents, racking up additional tax bills of $388,190.94 for the 2009 income tax year, $35,640.10 for the 2011 income tax year and $42,733.82 for the 2013 income tax year by 2015. In response, authorities continued to press, eventually filing felony charges against Coe.
“All taxpayers, regardless of their profession, must comply with their federal tax obligations,” said Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office. “As is evident from Mr. Coe’s guilty plea, schemes to evade the payment of taxes are a violation of the Federal Tax laws and postpones the eventual need to comply at an even higher cost, including federal criminal prosecution and having to pay back taxes with interest and steep penalties.”
Last year, Coe pleaded guilty to one count of impeding and obstructing the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws. He had faced a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. At sentencing, the 76-year-old Coe was ordered to pay his liabilities plus interest and penalty and was sentenced to three years probation.
