Hollywood actor and race-baiter Terrence Howard thinks he shouldn’t have to pay taxes because he’s allegedly the descendant of slaves.
Yet sadly for him, he was ordered by a judge on Friday to do exactly that — fork over his money and pay his darn taxes.
“A federal judge in Philadelphia has ordered … 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,'” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday.
A Philadelphia judge has ordered Terrence Howard to pay nearly $1 Million in back taxes and penalties after saying it was “immoral for the U.S. government to charge taxes to the descendants of slaves” pic.twitter.com/eejmU4UjPl
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) March 1, 2024
This comes after a year of Howard, 54, continually refusing to pay back $578,000 in taxes that he’d failed to pay between 2010 and 2019.
This also comes after what the Inquirer described as “a months-long effort to engage Howard in court after the Justice Department sued him in 2022.”
Yet Howard’s only response was a stunning voicemail he left for the case’s lead attorney last November in which he claimed he owed nothing and then threatened to shame the attorney by posting the lawsuit online.
“Four hundred years of forced labor and never receiving any compensation for it?” he said in the voicemail. “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.”
“In truth, the entire United States should, by default, become the property of the descendants of slaves. 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,” he added.
But he never actually responded to the suit in court.
And so “after a court hearing last week in Philadelphia, U.S. District Judge John F. Murphy granted the government’s request to enter a $903,115 default judgment against the actor,” according to the Inquirer.
Critics responded to the story by, among other things, reminding him of which party wants to cut taxes:
Another cheat
— Thomasbuck2 (@thomas4llc) March 2, 2024
Then move to another country. Your not special.
— Chris Hanover (@CHanover) March 2, 2024
Lmaooooo dude is using the race card to get out of paying taxes.
— Jack (@JackFought_1) March 1, 2024
If he doesn’t want to pay taxes, go back to the country your ancestors came from.
— JJ (@DOUBLE_J212) March 2, 2024
Can i say it’s immoral to tax the descendants of the people who fought to free the slaves?
— dunlasco (@dunlasco) March 2, 2024
Believe me, no one wants to pay taxes, no matter what color they are. Try changing the laws the old fashioned way like everyone else. Vote Republican.
— Como Se Llama (@m88704) March 2, 2024
Another example of an actor thinking too highly of himself. @terrencehoward has a net worth over $5M and gets paid $175,000 per episode. If he wasn’t reaping the benefits of living in the U.S. he’d most likely be a pauper.
— Bobby R (@itsbobbyrae) March 2, 2024
So Terrence Howard doesn’t believe he should have to pay a million dollars in back taxes because he’s the descendant of slaves so does that mean my Jewish family doesn’t have to pay any taxes because Jews were enslaved in Egypt?
— Ultra MAGA Joyce Day (@Daytobehappy) March 2, 2024
@terrencehdaily does that include those who lost family in the Holocaust? Or how about those are descendants of Indians that were slaughtered. Every race has been enslaved at some point in history. Stop living in the past you are no longer a Slave only what’s in your mind
— Heather (@H_Heather84) March 2, 2024
According to the Inquirer, Howard has been ensnared in legal troubles for quite a while now.
“State tax liens totaling nearly $639,000 were filed against his 2,450-square-foot property in Plymouth Meeting in 2005 and 2006, both of which were later settled, according to court records. The IRS imposed a $1.1 million lien on the property in 2010 for Howard’s failure to pay income taxes in 2007 and 2008,” the paper notes.
“In 2019, the State of California Franchise Tax Board hit Howard with another lien, alleging he owed $144,000 dating back to 2010. The board named him last year on a list of the state’s Top 500 tax scofflaws, saying he owed $256,00 in back taxes, penalties, and fees,” according to the paper.
And then in 2019, People magazine confirmed that federal prosecutors had opened an investigation into Howard and his wife, Mira Pak, for tax evasion.
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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