Uncle Sam & Hip Hop

Everyone dreams about what they would do once they hit it big. It’s like a childhood dream talking about all the cars and the huge house you would buy. The last thing anyone thinks about is breaking off Uncle Sam his share of your newly acquired wealth. To the ordinary person it seems too crazy to find out many celebrities do not pay their taxes but it happens more often than you think. Most of it is coming to light because our country is facing huge budget deficits and these figures are used as examples on the government cracking down on tax “evaders”. 

 

We all don’t see how hard it can be to pay your taxes but we fail to acknowledge that we have our taxes deducted from our checks every pay period. Most rappers come from having nothing to being inundated with cash. Last thing they think of is to put aside some of that money for taxes due. All they are receiving is Net Income and many artists fail to hire an accountant to make sure their finances are on the up and up.

 

More recently hip hop artist have been in the news about their tax debt. This month Mase was reported to owe $125,000 in back taxes. Before Heavy D passed away he was reported to have owed $44,000 to the IRS. One of the biggest offenders was Nas who reportedly owed $6 million in taxes, which included a $339,005 lien on his property for back taxes in 2010. Bow Wow owed a total of $126,086 to the government for taxes from 2006, 2008 and 2010. But it’s not all bad news; Lil Wayne at one point owed $1.1 million but was able to clear this up after successful albums and tour. 

 

So the lesson you need to learn is if you hit it big, before you buy the new car and the big houses…Hire a good accountant and lawyer!

Make that paper everyone but remember to break off Uncle Sam’s cut!

Peace!

-Migs

@ThaRealMigs