Nicolas Cage Contests Tax Bill, But Not IRS Right to Tax
Actor Nicolas Cage is fighting an Internal Revenue Service determination that he and a company he owns wrongly claimed $3.3 million in deductions for limos, meals, gifts, his Gulfstream jet and other personal expenses.
Cage filed U.S. Tax Court petitions contesting the IRS bill for $1.8 million in unpaid taxes due from him and his company, Saturn Productions of Los Angeles, Fortune reports.
Cage’s business manager, Samuel Levin, told a columnist for the magazine that the deductions were customary in the entertainment industry and were partly based on security needs.
His argument is different from that of tax protesters who deny a need to pay any taxes. Among their anti-tax arguments are claims the 16th Amendment authorizing the federal income tax was never properly ratified.
The government is planning a crackdown on the tax protest movement, to be announced next month, Bloomberg News reports.
Actor Wesley Snipes was caught up in some of the protesters’ tax theories, according to documents filed in his Florida trial for tax fraud. Earlier this month, Snipes was acquitted of more serious tax fraud and conspiracy charges but convicted of three misdemeanor charges for failure to pay taxes.
A hat tip to TaxProf Blog, which posted the news of Cage’s tax troubles and the upcoming government crackdown.
