Good Luck With That: Actor Terrence Howard Owes $1 Million in Back Taxes After Bold Strategy Fails

Terrence Howard, actor from TV's 'Empire,' 'Crash,' and the original Rhodey in 'Iron Man' has a bold theory for getting out of paying taxes: threaten a DOJ lawyer and say making the descendants of slaves pay taxes is immoral.

To quote 'Dodgeball,': It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for him.

Spoiler alert: it didn't.

A Philadelphia judge has ordered Terrence Howard to pay nearly $1 million in back taxes and penalties after he allegedly threatened a DOJ lawyer and said that it was “immoral for the U.S. government to charge taxes to the descendants of slaves” https://t.co/7Vk9Pet7Wo
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 1, 2024

More from The Philadelphia Inquirer:

A federal judge in Philadelphia has ordered Academy Award-nominated actor Terrence Howard to pay nearly $1 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties after he allegedly threatened a Justice Department lawyer and maintained that it was “immoral for the United States government to charge taxes to the descendants of slaves.”
For more than a year, the 54-yera-old start 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 the 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."

Terrance Howard has been ordered to pay nearly $1M in back taxes and penalties by a federal judge

This comes after he allegedly threatened a DOJ lawyer and said it was 'immoral for the United States government to charge taxes to the descendants of slaves'

(via @PhillyInquirer) pic.twitter.com/UIa1ucn6xT
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) March 1, 2024

Note his original back taxes were just under $600k; if he had hired a lawyer and answered the suit, he probably wouldn't have paid that much.

Fumbles being in the MCU or he would have been able to afford the charges
— Riker (@JoeRikerEvans) March 1, 2024

Harsh, but true.

MCU would’ve took care of that easy https://t.co/z53dLCofYF pic.twitter.com/RwtKzFGO9F
— shep (@sheepswin) March 1, 2024

Yep.

Imagine using the slave card but being a multimillionaire just to avoid paying taxes. None of us want to pay taxes but we don't have a choice and not everyone is a millionaire either to be able to pay taxes and live comfortably with a fortune in your bank account.
— John: (@JoHn199024J) March 1, 2024

Someone else can pay their fair share.

He filed his taxes using the math he invented 💯
— rebel’s cum (@Iced_Mango) March 2, 2024

If you don't get the reference, he believes 1x1=2 (it doesn't).

Explains a lot, frankly.

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