Taxes aren’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea, but we have to pay them. While tax avoidance is technically legal, it doesn’t go down well with the general public when celebrities who can afford to pay their taxes use underhand tactics to get out of paying as much tax as they should. The authorities always manage to catch up with them in the end though. Check out these 9 celebrities who have sneakily tried to avoid paying taxes.
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Judy Garland
At one point Judy owed the IRS a total of $4 million and had her home repossessed, forcing her to live in hotels for a while.
2. Mary J. Blige
Mary was hit with a huge tax lien of $3.4 million by the IRS in 2013 for having previously avoided taxes. She also got landed with a bill for $900,000 from the State of New Jersey.
3. Mike Sorrentino
Better known as ‘The Situation’, the Jersey Shore star was landed with a huge tax bill after failing to pay tax on his $8.9 million earnings in 2014.
4. Willie Nelson
Back in the 90s, Willie took part in a bogus tax shelter scheme and at one point he owed the government a staggering $16 million in fines and back taxes. Showing a great sense of humor, he released an album called The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories to help pay the government back. The album generated over $3 million sales to help Willie pay his tax bill off.
5. Dionne Warwick
The singer got landed with a ginormous tax bill of around $10 million. She owed the money in back taxes both to the State of California and the IRS. To help pay off her debts, she filed for bankruptcy.
6. Chuck Berry
Though Chuck is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of rock and roll music, he still made a mistake with his taxes that caught up with him. In fact, he received a four month prison sentence for tax evasion.
7. Pamela Anderson
Pamela has been hit with more than one lien filed against her for unpaid taxes. In 2012 she got a bill of about $400,000 and earlier on in 2009 she got a much larger bill of around $1.7 million.
8. Martha Stewart
Before she served a prison sentence for insider trading, Martha had to pay a tax bill of $220,000 to the State of New York; one of the reasons her bill was so high was because of her East Hampton mansions.
9. Lindsay Lohan
The actress had her bank accounts seized in order to pay off a whopping $233,904 in federal taxes that had gone unpaid.
