“… in 2003 the New York City Finance Department socked Keith’s “Empire” with a $46,055 judgement for failure to pay taxes to New York City. The judgement, since vacated, was filed on June 30, 2003.
“This latest tax problem, the fourth to surface in as many days, shows Keith struggling to pay his taxes on time in either New York State, New York City or California for five of the past nine years: 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007 and 2008.” [OW]
First there was the $2,300 his personal corporate owed in state taxes, with a judgment issued against him in August. And now a second back tax record, against his person, pops up, with him owing $77,425 from 2001. [OW]
For the working class out there that toils away in coffee shops trying to eek out an existence writing front-of-the-book blurbs for beauty magazines, today represents a special kind of hell: It’s tax day, and while most everyone else in employed life already had their government dollars withheld by their employer, you, dear soul, have not, and had to sort through all of your 1099s and receipts to figure out how much Uncle Sam is stealing from you this year.
Salon’s Catherine Price found herself in a similar situation. Last year. It involved the scenario your cramped studio apartment looks like right now: Forms strewn all over your parquet floor, coffee rings bleeding through important government slips, and yourself, curled up in a fetal position. So she came up with a handy listicle of tips to get you through your pain and suffering. Most of her ideas are smart; all of them are obvious.
Get a tax adviser. Set up different bank accounts for business earnings. Pay your taxes quarterly. Set aside funds specifically for taxes. Bathe. (One we don’t agree with: Don’t own a coffee maker. This forces you to go outside and socialize. Good for your mental health, bad for your ability to get out of bed in the morning.)
But what’s the one thing wrong with all of this good advice?
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The IRS knows when you are sleeping, they know when you’re awake and, most importantly, they know when you’ve forgotten to pay the lion’s share of your yearly income taxes. And now, thanks to an afternoon spent trolling the IRS records, so does the New York Post. Among their startling (and gleefully delivered) findings:
The records show that hip-hop mogul Damon Dash – whose estimated $50 million fortune bought him a chauffeur-driven $400,000 Maybach sedan, diamond-encrusted watches and more than 1,000 pairs of sneakers – owes the state more than $2 million.
$2 million dollars? Sounds like someone needs a better tax attorney and/or personal shopper! By our calculations, that means Damon “Leona Helmsley” Dash stands to lose approximately 4% of his estimated total net worth. On the plus side? He’ll still have $48 million.
Sinbad, OJ Simpson and Dionne Warwick are on the California Franchise Tax Boards list of delinquent tax payers.
Hopefully the California Franchise Tax Board has also levied some fee on Sinbad for his role in the 1996 monstrosity First Kid.