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The Taxman Cometh!

In 1990, the Internal Revenue Service seized most of Willie Nelson’s assets, claiming he owed $32 million. Turns out his accountants at Price Waterhouse failed to pay Nelson’s taxes for years (oops!)

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In 1990, the Internal Revenue Service seized most of Willie Nelson’s assets, claiming he owed $32 million. Turns out his accountants at Price Waterhouse failed to pay Nelson’s taxes for years (oops!). But Nelson isn’t the only superstar that has been slapped with tax crime punishments, and certainly not the only one to come up with a creative excuse. Check out our round up of celebrities who have crossed the taxman.

Martha Stewart

In 2004, Stewart was sentenced to prison and five months of home confinement before two years of supervised probation would kick in, and fined $30,000. She was expected to be sentenced to 10 to 16 months in jail. Why? All because the business magnate was so rich, she forgot about her home in the Hamptons . . . and paying taxes on it.

Annie Leibovitz

Leibovitz owed over $2.3 million in unpaid taxes in 2009 alone. The famed photographer essentially wrote an IOU for repayment. She gave up four of her properties and the copyright to every photograph she will ever take from that point on.

Marc Anthony

The Latin music artist claimed he was in the same boat as Nelson. Anthony said he did not commit tax evasion last year because he had trusted his financial team to file the returns for him. He paid $2.5 million in back taxes.

Nicolas Cage

Cage too blamed his financial manager for his back taxes. And his financial manager blamed his reckless spending. From 2007 to 2009, Cage accrued over $12 million in back taxes. In November 2009, the State of Nevada foreclosed on his multimillion-dollar Vegas home, settling the whodunit argument.

Wesley Snipes

Snipes was a bit more creative than the others. When the IRS went after him for not filing tax returns from 1999 to 2004, Snipes claimed he was a “nonresident alien” of the U.S. The fact that he was born in Florida was just a technicality. He was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $17 million. Freakin‘ bloodsuckers.

Richard Hatch

The first ever Survivor winner was fined $600,000 and sentenced to three years in jail. Hatch never reported his $1 million prize from the reality show—maybe he just didn’t know; maybe he wasn’t used to having such a large check. But what’s his excuse for evading taxes on the $370,000 he earned as a co-host of a Boston radio show and the $28,000 in rent on property he owned?

Judy Garland

The internationally known actress was plagued with a number of problems from failed marriages to insecurities about her appearance. Garland’s financial woes were only a small part of her downward spiral after MGM made her a household name. In 1967, the State of New York fined her $4 million and repossessed her home. She was forced to jump from hotel to hotel. Two years later the actress was found dead in her rented house from an accidental overdose. She really wasn’t in Kansas anymore. (Lynn Lieu)

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