14 DAY TRIAL // In August last year, it emerged that one of the highest paid actors in the industry, Nicolas Cage, owed over $6 million in back taxes, a debt that was explainable by poor management, as Cage himself stressed later. As it turns out, the star owes more than $6 million to the IRS, an estimated $14 million, money that he’ll pay this year, he tells TMZ.
As we also reported a while back, after news broke that Cage owed so much money to the government, he and his manager took the matter to court, with one accusing the other of not handling finances accordingly, wherefrom the cause of all the trouble. The manager even went as far as to claim that Cage was spending way more money than he could make, which is why he had gone broke and couldn’t afford to pay his taxes. Unfortunately, he did not stick around long enough to substantiate his claims.
Cage has new management now and the first thing on his agenda is to make sure his debt is settled, he says. “Over the course of my career I have paid at least $70 million in taxes. Unfortunately, due to a recent legal situation, another approximate $14 million is owed to the IRS, however, I am under new business management and am happy to say that I am current for 2009. All taxes will be paid including any to be determined state taxes,” Cage tells TMZ in a recent statement.
The $14 million includes the $6 million in takes for 2009. “Nicolas Cage has been hit with a massive $6.2 million demand from U.S. tax officials, according to news reports. The star is accused of failing to keep up with his taxes in 2007, and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials have taken their case to a court in Louisiana, where Cage has a home he’s trying to sell, in a bid to try to recoup the cash. The Detroit News reports IRS officials filed tax lien documents against Cage in Orleans District Court on 14 July (09), alleging he failed to pay $6,257,005 to cover his income tax in 2007,” the Houston Chronicle was saying a while ago, as we also informed you at the time.
So far, Cage’s former manager is keeping mum and out of the media, presumably until the matter is settled in court. As also noted above, the manager says Cage’s spending habits were far too great to curb, while the star claims in legal documents it was his manager that had brought him on the verge of financial ruin.