{"id":17585,"date":"2009-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/the-bigger-they-are-the-more-they-pay\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:47:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:47:38","slug":"the-bigger-they-are-the-more-they-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/the-bigger-they-are-the-more-they-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bigger They Are, The\u2026.More They Pay?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people I talk to about their IRS problem have already built the worst-case scenario in their head. The reality is usually much more manageable. I'm Darrin Mish, and I've been representing taxpayers before the IRS for 32 years. Here's what actually tends to happen.<\/p>\n

If you admire the rich and famous for all the money they have, you may be interested to know about Nicolas Cage (of \u2018National Treasure\u2019 and \u2018Leaving Las Vegas\u2019 fame).\u00a0 The IRS is taking him to court over $6.2 million ($6, 257,005 to be exact) in alleged unpaid income taxes in 2007. \u00a0Click here to watch or read more information on IRS Back Taxes.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Orleans District Court in Louisiana imposed the IRS tax lien on his $3.55 million mansion in New Orleans, which the actor has put up for sale<\/a>.\u00a0 If he manages to close the sale at that price, he would still owe the state about $2.7 million.<\/p>\n

Actually this is not the first time Cage has had to pay large sums in taxes.\u00a0 In September 2008, the star settled $666,000 plus interest in back taxes and penalties over allegations of improperly deducting personal expenses from taxable amounts.<\/p>\n

Cage\u2019s spokeswoman, Annette Wolf declined to comment.<\/p>\n

It would seem that the recession has affected all and sundry, and famous personalities like Cage is no exception.\u00a0 In April this year, the Huffington Post reported that the star had to sell his Bavarian Castle, Scholss\u00a0 Niedstein because of the sluggish economy.<\/p>\n

In fact, even death does not absolve you from the long arm of the IRS.\u00a0 The late Republican businessman Ralph Hughes died allegedly owing almost $300 million in corporate taxes and penalties, according to the IRS.\u00a0 In a suit filed recently, the IRS claimed that Hughes\u2019 companies illegally transferred large sums of money to shareholders and\/or companies under their control in order to evade paying creditors, among whom are the IRS themselves.<\/p>\n

The IRS claimed that Hughes\u2019 companies, Cast-Crete and Florida Engineered Construction Products Corp. (FECP) did not submit their corporate tax returns for the last four years, despite attempts by IRS officials to obtain the returns, compute and collect taxes due.\u00a0 As a result, the IRS had to do their own research and came to the conclusion that the companies were liable for $128 million in taxes, $117 million in penalties and $54 million in interests, making the total debt more than $299 million.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the IRS alleged that after those fraudulent transfers of funds to shareholders and other controlled companies, Cast-Crete and FECP became insolvent and were left with only $11 million to pay taxes. \u00a0A total of $118 million was distributed, out of which $61 million went to Hughes himself.\u00a0 According to the IRS, Hughes did not report $27.9 million on his own personal income tax while reporting more than $16 million as interest payments by his companies although there was no underlying debt.<\/p>\n

Hughes\u2019 family has strongly disputed the IRS\u2019 claims and they intend to prove his innocence.<\/p>\n

Check out more IRS Reports<\/a> stories by clicking that link.<\/p>\n

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Most people I talk to about their IRS problem have already built the worst-case scenario in their head. The reality is usually much more manageable. I'm Darrin Mish, and I've been representing taxpayers before the IRS for 32 years. Here's what actually tends to happen. If you admire the rich and famous for all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[591],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-17585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irs-news","tag-tax-lien"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21391,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17585\/revisions\/21391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}