If there is one thing that you should learn from celebrities, it is not to follow their example when it comes to finances. Below you can see some of the celebrities who cheated on their taxes and had to pay for the consequences in not so pleasant ways.
Wesley Snipes
Back in 2008, the IRS caught up with Wesley Snipes for not filing taxes at all from 1999 to 2001, and his consequence was spending three years in prison. Turns out, he thought it was a good idea to challenge how the IRS would collect taxes. They sure showed him, right?
Richard Hatch
Richard Hatch, the winner of Survivor, decided he was not going to report the million that he won as a prize. He was punished by the IRS with three years in prison and was sent back for another nine months because not filing taxes in 2009 was a violation of his probation.
Al Capone
This person may have gotten off easy since the government was not able to catch him in the act of doing alleged crimes. However, when he slipped by not filing taxes he was given a penalty of serving approximately half of his eleven year sentence for tax evasion.
Overall, it is probably best to learn from these celebrities mistakes. Not filing taxes can turn into jail time and other things can happen too. Unless you are trying to have your five minutes of fame for tax evasion, do not think of trying to pull a slick one over on Uncle Sam. Call our Seattle CPA firm at (425) 483-6600