A Philadelphia judge has ordered Oscar-nominated actor Terrence Howard to pay nearly $1 million in back taxes, penalties and interest. Howard didn’t do himself any favors when he told the case’s lead attorney that it was “immoral for the U.S. government to charge taxes to the descendants of slaves.”
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the judge was unmoved and ordered the serial tax dodger to pay $903,115:
For more than a year, the 54-year-old star of the TV hit Empire, whose last listed address was in Plymouth Meeting, rebuffed IRS efforts to collect $578,000 in income taxes it says he failed to pay between 2010 and 2019.
And despite a months-long effort to engage Howard in court after the Justice Department sued him in 2022, the actor’s only response was a voicemail he allegedly left on the phone of the case’s lead tax attorney in November.
According to a transcript of that message, included in court filings, Howard denied owing anything and threatened to shame her by posting the lawsuit against him on the internet.
“Four hundred years of forced labor and never receiving any compensation for it,” the actor said in the message. “Now you have the gall to try and prosecute and charge taxes to the descendants of a broken people that you are responsible for causing the breakage.” [emphasis added]
The recording abruptly ended while Howard was speaking, but he called back and resumed his rant.
“In truth, the entire United States should, by default, become the property of the descendants of slaves,” the actor (with an estimated net worth of $30 million) added. “But since you do not have the ability [or] the courage to do it, let’s try this in court. … We’re gonna bring you down.”
Despite the fighting words, Howard never formally responded to the government’s lawsuit, and U.S. District Judge John F. Murphy ordered the actor to pay a $903,115 default judgment.
Howard’s most notable credits include “Iron Man,” “Crash” and “Hustle & Flow,” for which he received a Best Actor nomination.
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