P.S.A – Dont Mess With the IRS

For those of you young brothas that may be just getting started in your respective careers, here is some advice that you should ALWAYS remember: “Don’t Mess with the IRS”. You won’t win, and your life(style) can and will be altered by them. Snoop Dogg is about to find this out real soon.

News broke last week that the Internal Revenue Service had filed a tax lien against the veteran rapper and his wife in the amount of $598,309. While that amount sounds astronomical to regular joes like ourselves, it is all relative to the millions of dollars over nearly 2 decades Snoop has made.

A few things form this story bother me. Unlike regular people, most celebrities have accountants on payroll to avoid situations just like this. You would’ve thought brothas would have learned from Wesley Snipes, who was sentenced in 2008 to 3 years in prison for tax evasion. Snipes reportedly owed $2.7 million dollars to the feds, and while Snipes is currently out on bail while his lawyers appeal his sentence, the probability of losing your freedom due to not paying something each and every one of us has to pay is crazy.

So, while some of you are getting tax refunds this time of year, many of you are not that fortunate. If you owe the IRS, make sure you do these 3 simple tasks:

1. Call them yourself. – Don’t wait for them to call you to discuss your bill.

2. Propose a payment plan that you can afford. – Again, don’t let the bill, or the I.R.S wait for attention to the matter. If you propose an offer for payments, it is much more likely they will work with you and accept it.

3. Learn from your mistakes. – If you owed due to not having enough witheld from your paycheck last year, adjust your deductions and witholding today. The sooner you do this in the year, the less likely you will underpay.

Tagged as: tax refunds, tax tips