Wesley Snipes Ordered To Pay $9.5 Million In Back Taxes To IRS

Wesley Snipes has been ordered to pay back taxes despite trying hard to convince the Internal Revenue Service that he doesn’t have the funds, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The outlet reported Thursday that the IRS originally attempted to collect $23.5 million from the actor, to which he responded with an offer-in-compromise (OIC) for $850,000, a mechanism that would have let him settle his debt and have the tax lien against his home withdrawn.

But the IRS rejected the offer, which prompted Snipes to file a petition to overturn the decision.

On Thursday, however, tax court Judge Kathleen Kerrigan delivered the “Blade” actor a final blow, when she said that Snipes failed to convince the court that he doesn’t have the assets to pay more than $850,000.

The Hollywood Reporter reports a settlement officer looked into the actor’s real estate holdings and assets and determined that the reasonable amount that could be collected was about $17.5 million.

Despite the settlement amount being lowered, Snipes still reportedly tried to fight back. He went on to claim that his financial adviser had taken out loans and disposed of assets without him knowing and produced an affidavit from the adviser admitting to his misconduct, but the actor was unable to provide any documentation with proof of the diversion of his assets.

Though Snipes’ liability was eventually reduced to $9.5 million, the 56-year-old actor refuses to budge from his original $850,000 offer.

In a statement from Judge Kerrigan, she wrote, “Given the disparity between petitioner’s $842,061 OIC and the settlement officer’s calculation of $9,581,027 as his RCP, as well as petitioner’s inability to credibly document his assets, the settlement officer and her manager had ample justification to reject the offer. Accordingly, we conclude that the settlement officer did not abuse her discretion in determining that acceptance of petitioner’s OIC was not in the best interest of the United States.”

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