In this guest post the author looks at three examples of people who took their tax for granted, something that with the right work methodology learnt through Six Sigma training would have been easily avoided.
Nobody likes to see their hard earned cash depleted by taxes and, it seems the better off the citizen, the further they’ll go to avoid paying their share. However, the IRS are not afraid of taking on celebrities they suspect of doing some creative accounting and when they do they usually win. Here’s a look at three of the strangest examples:
Judy Garland
Despite being remembered by most of us for her portrayal of Dorothy in the Hollywood classic, ‘The Wizard of Oz’, Judy was also in another musical that should have garnered critical acclaim, a remake of ‘A Star is Born’. By all accounts it would have been a massive success, had it not been for the idiocy of the studio.
Upon hearing strong initial reviews, the studio realized they had a potentially high grossing film on their hands…So they cut out half an hour of material.
Their logic was that this would allow cinemas to show the film a couple of extra times a day, boosting the takings. Critics were appalled, declared the new version a disaster and it duly flopped.
However, Judy had already been spending as if all was well. When the tax bill came, she couldn’t afford it, lost her home and no amount of heel clicking could get it back.
Al Capone
The IRS have a conviction rate of roughly 90% when it comes to taking celebrities to court over tax issues, which may explain why it is that, whilst the authorities couldn’t convict Al Capone of any of the more serious crimes he doubtlessly committed, they were able to put him behind bars for tax evasion.
Despite almost certainly having ordered the famous St Valentine’s Day Massacre, and made a fortune from illegal bootlegging, police where unable to get a conviction to stick on Capone for any of his gang related activities, even though a crack team, The Untouchables, were formed specifically to do so.
However, Al was slack with his tax returns and, in the end, that did for him. He was found guilty of 5 counts of tax evasion in 1931 and was given an 11 year jail sentence, the longest ever passed for tax misdemeanours.
Willie Nelson
Famed country singer, Willie Nelson, who is also a noted writer, screen actor and political activist, made millions when he achieved the twin feats of critical acclaim and mass popularity in the mid 1970’s.
Unfortunately, whilst Willie was at the top of his game, his accountant was at the very bottom of his. In 1990 it was revealed that Nelson’s taxes hadn’t been paid for years. The result was a bill for $32,000,000, though this amount was later significantly reduced.
Remarkably, Willie managed to get debt free in just 3 years, thanks to the release of a double album, the proceeds of which all sent to the tax man. He also had help from friends who, when his assets were sold off by the IRS, bought them up and gave them back.
Will Kerr writes on a great number of topics related to tax rationalisation, from business deductions to ISA rates.
Silicon Beach Training offer a wide range of courses so you don’t wind up in the same mess these guys did. Take a look at our Six Sigma training and see how you can become a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt practitioner.