Lately, all the news about the estate of late singer Michael Jackson has been positive after it was revealed that a deal was reached with Sony to buy out Jackson’s stake in their joint must publishing venture for $750 million. This money was though to represent a huge turnaround for the debt riddled estate that would wipe out the huge debts that were accrued over the final years of the pop star’s life. However, reports are now surfacing that IRS is knocking at the door and looking for a big slice of the pie amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. While nothing has been officially confirmed by the IRS, a hit like this could significantly undermine the expectations that the children of the late singer were set to become billionaires in their own right by then time they received their inheritance. However, the estate continues to bring in huge amounts of money per year from sales and licensing of Jackson’s music which should ensure a kings lifestyle for the family even if the taxman comes looking for a lot. But, in any event, time will tell how much the final estate tax bill will be.
See Jessica Earnshaw, Michael Jackson’s three children ‘could lose £900million inheritance due to huge tax bill’, Express, March 22, 2016.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
