Embattled blues singer Koko Taylor hounded by IRS
Filed under: Tax
I'm listening to Koko Taylor as I write this, so consider me a biased source of insight on this story. I also saw her live when I had a summer job at the Cape Cod Melody Tent.
Nevertheless, here's a quick run-down of the story: 79-year old blues legend Koko Taylor is in poor health. According to a Forbes article, she "needs a wheelchair pushed by her child to reach the stage for her fewer and fewer live gigs." Other than her home valued at $280 thousand, she has no significant assets.
Oh yeah: the IRS says she owes them $400 thousand in taxes, penalties and interest. To try to keep her house, she offered to take out a reverse mortgage and pay $200 thousand plus half of any future net revenue. But the IRS refused.
You can read the details in the Forbes article and I know: people have a responsibility to pay taxes and it's the IRS' job to collect and blah blah blah.
But there aren't there better, more efficient and, frankly, less mean-spirited ways to increase tax revenues than going after an 80-year old blues singer who lacks any significant savings?
Nevertheless, here's a quick run-down of the story: 79-year old blues legend Koko Taylor is in poor health. According to a Forbes article, she "needs a wheelchair pushed by her child to reach the stage for her fewer and fewer live gigs." Other than her home valued at $280 thousand, she has no significant assets.
Oh yeah: the IRS says she owes them $400 thousand in taxes, penalties and interest. To try to keep her house, she offered to take out a reverse mortgage and pay $200 thousand plus half of any future net revenue. But the IRS refused.
You can read the details in the Forbes article and I know: people have a responsibility to pay taxes and it's the IRS' job to collect and blah blah blah.
But there aren't there better, more efficient and, frankly, less mean-spirited ways to increase tax revenues than going after an 80-year old blues singer who lacks any significant savings?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-18-2008 @ 4:17PM
Tracy Coenen said...
Since when did enforcing our laws become "mean-spirited"?
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5-18-2008 @ 4:18PM
Susan said...
I have no sympathy for this woman. Who's fault is it that she has no savings? Who's fault is it that she ruined her health by hard oartying? Her adjusted gross income for one of the years she did not pay her taxes was almost a million dollars! I probably did not earn a million in my lifetime. My husband and I are on social security now and continue to pay our income taxes. What's your idea of right - whoever has the biggest sob story is home free?
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5-18-2008 @ 4:18PM
Andy said...
I love Blues music and Koko Taylor. However, the IRS is not a person. No one in that government agency has authority to spend or not spend your tax money. It is too bad that her children will not have an inheritance but, hey, that's life. How appropriate that she is a BLUES singer.
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