Michael Jackson Estate Targeted by IRS Shocking Tax-Cheating Allegations

[witchcurlgirl]

[MontanaMama]

The taxman cometh. They will negotiate down. Can't send a Trust to jail. Guess they thought it worth a try.

Not normally a lot of negotiating on underpaid estate tax, but this will absolutely end up in Tax Court and they will assign some value that will seem totally random. The Beatles catalog Trust valued at zero was horrifically stupid, probably totally pissed off the adjuster.

[NoNoRehab]

During his lifetime, Jacko leveraged so many loans against his interest in the Beatles' catalog that he then didn't pay back he lost his interest to Sony.

[Kathie_Moffett]

[sluce]

The hard core conspiracy theorist in me thinks this is precisely the outcome some folk are hoping for. Puttin' on the squeeze, so to speak..

Yes. It must be a conspiracy. It couldn't be that the Jackson family chooses to hire unethical people for positions such as personal physicians and accountants. These poor people are always the victim of people looking to squeeze them. So far I would say that Conrad Murray is winning.

[CornFlakegrl]

I believe two things here: the Jackson's are thieving liars and the IRS is lazy and operates under the assumption that you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent. Meaning, they will say you owe your entire net worth (because that's the biggest number in front of them and therefore the easiest to use) until you prove otherwise. And prove it in detail. Submitted several times. I believe their strategy is to wear you down without them having to actually audit a single thing.

In short, the Jackson's cheated, but the number is probably way overestimated.

[Novice]

So,are you saying the IRS confused the Jackson family with a right wing conservative group?

I have no funking clue because when I see those Wall O' Text posts I have to scroll right past because otherwise I lose the will to live.

[Sasha]

So,are you saying the IRS confused the Jackson family with a right wing conservative group?

No. Are you saying that ONLY politics could EVER be behind IRS harassment? One corporation having a cat fight with another, or a corporation/wealthy individual with a vendetta against a Trust, or a corporation/wealthy individual against one disagreeable family who has something they want would work just the same.

[McJag]

No. Are you saying that ONLY politics could EVER be behind IRS harassment?

Actually,I thought that was what YOU were saying. My mistake.

[witchcurlgirl]

No. Are you saying that ONLY politics could EVER be behind IRS harassment?

Of course it isn't only​ ​politics behind IRS harassment. Sometimes it happens when people don't pay their taxes.

[Sasha]

Of course it isn't only​ ​politics behind IRS harassment. Sometimes it happens when people don't pay their taxes.

In which case it's not harassment. Like I said, it may not be, but the incredible amount makes it worth asking questions. I mean, is the estate even worth billions? According to Forbes:

Why The $702 Million IRS Tax Claim On Michael Jackson's Estate Won't Stand Up

8/23/2013 @ 8:11PM

First of all, it’s important to understand that the IRS’s claims are related to estate tax, not income tax. In 2009, the year Jackson passed away, the maximum federal rate was 45% of net assets–implying that the IRS believes Jackson was worth in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion at the time of his death.

Though the King of Pop was a much savvier businessman than most people realize and amassed an incredible collection of assets throughout his career, he was most certainly not a billionaire on June 25th, 2009. He did not appear on FORBES’ list of billionaires that year, or any other year, for that matter.

Jackson did hold hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, namely his 50% share in the Sony SNE +1.82%/ATV catalogue, which industry experts believed to be worth as much as $750 million at the time (and is worth far more now). There were other entities, too, including his Mijac music catalogue, real estate and a massive art collection.
But Jackson also carried nearly half a billion dollars in debt, meaning that his net assets were well under $1 billion–and likely less than the $702 million tax bill proposed today. The reports also suggest that a major component of the IRS bill revolves around the value of Jackson’s image and likeness. The tax agency is said to have put that number at $434 million, while the estate valued the rights at $2,105.
Though the latter seems very low, the former seems incredibly high–at the time of Jackson’s death, anyway–given the fact that the singer hadn’t scored an endorsement deal since 1993 and didn’t crack FORBES’ list of top-earning musicians in 2008, a year in which the Police earned $115 million to claim the top spot.
To be sure, the value of just about everything Jackson-related has skyrocketed in the years following his death. His image is once again a force to be reckoned with in the endorsement world, landing on everything from Pepsi cans to slot machines. Two Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil tours are currently running–Michael Jackson One in Las Vegas and the Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour around the globe–and his music seems as popular as ever.
But estate taxes are levied on the value of assets at the time of death, not at the time the tax bill is issued or announced. And as a result, it seems unlikely that the tax court will rule in favor of the IRS getting its $702 million.

[twitchy2.0]

and a massive art collection.

yeah, "art". I remember that crap.