Remember when Dog the Bounty Hunter was making heaps of money tracking down criminals? It almost seems like a lifetime ago, but when he was in his prime, the bounty hunter made millions of dollars on reality television. Now, he’s facing a battle with taxes that paints him in a terrible light.
According to Radar Online, the famous criminal-finding TV star is being dogged by the Internal Revenue Service for over a million in unpaid taxes.
Harder to find than a fugitive
The dispute worsened when Dog claimed that the IRS did not properly serve him with a tax delinquency notice in 2012. And while that may be true, did he just decide not to pay his taxes since then?
What was once probably a more manageable amount in overdue taxes has now ballooned to $1.6 million.
In an ironic twist of fate, the feds accused the former reality show star of being even more challenging to find than the fugitives he tracked down. He supposedly changed his home address on his returns at least three times between 2010 and 2011.
In a 2019 ruling, a United States Tax Court Judge even addressed Dog about being shifty with his home address. They inferred that he was making the process harder on himself by not being forthcoming.
Documents show that Dog listed his home address as the addresses of the Los Angeles offices of two different accountants who file his tax returns as opposed to his home in Hawaii. And even in his home state, he listed two separate addresses.
When the judge tossed out his attempt to not pay what he owed, she noted that at no time during the processing of his deficiency notices did Dog or his accountants notify the IRS of which address was best to communicate with him.
She further said that his confusing address scheme was no excuse and that every conceivable effort was made to serve him notice at the addresses he provided.
IRS IOU piling up
And now, thanks to his delinquency and failure to address this immediately, Dog’s IOU to the IRS has ballooned considerably. Records show he has been slapped with a total of 17 federal tax liens since 1990. These range from $1.8 million in Hawaii in 2009 and $800,000 in Colorado in 2022.
He recently filed a petition disputing the tax bills for years 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. And, he has accused the Tax Commissioner of several different infractions. Not surprisingly, it looks like the address he gave in Florida, where he now resides, is not his home address.
Morale of the story: nothing in life is constant except death and taxes. Dog’s problems with the IRS could have been solved if he had paid his taxes on time and didn’t insist on being as cagey as some of the criminals he once pursued.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK DOG SHOULD PAY HIS TAXES? DO YOU THINK HE WAS BEING INTENTIONALLY CAGEY WITH HIS HOME ADDRESS?
