I don’t make a habit of posting about celebrity tax woes. Quite frankly, I don’t get why most taxpayers care if an occasional pop star or movie mogul owes a few thousand dollars to the IRS (other than a little schadenfreude) since most of the time, I tend to believe that it’s the result of a mistake.
I think it’s different when there are allegations of criminal activity (a la Wesley Snipes or Method Man) or when the behavior is so egregious and outrageous (think Richard Hatch) that it can’t be overlooked. I also think it makes sense to report on celebrity tax mistakes when there’s a real lesson to be learned (such as Sharon Osbourne’s tweets about her trust her financial advisors too much or when Nicholas Cage claimed that he was told his deductions were legitimate) or when it affects taxpayers because it’s someone we trusted to do the right thing (like Rangel or a string of Obama nominees). Those items are newsworthy.
So when I saw the headlines today advising which celebs owe taxes (yes, there is always a handful at any given time), I just skimmed over them without as much as raising an eyebrow until I saw… Lil Kim.
Lil Kim (whose real name is Kimberly Denise Jones) is a rap artist who, after a stint in federal prison in Philadelphia on perjury charges relating to a shooting, promised to try and turn her life around. She left prison in a Rolls Royce Phantom (valued at about $350,000) on July 5, 2006, on three years probation. Less than three years after her release, she made an appearance on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, paired with über DWTS pro Derek Hough in what was billed as an effort to reinvent herself. Her on-air efforts seemed to work since she danced her way through the competition to warm reviews.
Fan admiration didn’t stop the IRS from knocking on her door, however. That year, it was revealed that Lil Kim owed more than $1 million in state and federal back taxes. Her spokesperson at the time advised that Lil Kim was working to pay down her debt.
Apparently she wasn’t working hard enough. The same year, 2009, that she made that statement (and undoubtedly some cash for her DWTS appearances), Lil Kim failed to pay her federal income taxes. Again. For 2009, she owes the IRS $86,347.85. That’s a pretty meager sum in the grand scheme of things and hardly noteworthy on its own except that, according to TMZ, court documents indicate that Lil Kim owes money every year from 2002-2009. Every year. At that point, it’s no longer a mistake.
A rep, of course, has again advised that she’s working to resolve the situation. Let’s hope she can get it right this time.
