| |
N0KFQ > TODAY 09.11.12 18:15l 58 Lines 2599 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 31021_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Nov 9
Path: IZ3LSV<F1OYP<N9PMO<GB7LDI<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 121109/1559Z 31021@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.53
...
Nov 9, 1990:
Willie Nelson's assets are seized by the IRS
"We try to work with taxpayers," Internal Revenue Service
spokeswoman Valerie Thornton told The New York Times in the
autumn of 1991, "[a]nd if we have to come up with some creative
payment plan, that's what we're going to do, because it's in
everyone's best interest." The creative payment plan to which Ms.
Thornton was referring in her statement to the Times involved a
unique revenue-sharing agreement negotiated between the IRS and
the beloved country singer Willie Nelson, who was then struggling
to repay a $16.7 million dollar tax debt that had led the federal
government to seize all of his assets one year earlier, on this
day in 1990
Willie Nelson landed himself in tax trouble as a result of
investments he made in the early 1980s in a tax shelter later
ruled illegal by the IRS. With interest and penalties on top of
his original unpaid taxes, Nelson was facing a tax bill in excess
of $16 million, and though his lawyers convinced the IRS to
accept a $6 million cash payment to settle the entire debt, even
this was more than Nelson was able to pay, despite being perhaps
the most bankable country-music star of the day. "He didn't have
$1 million_he probably didn't have $30,000," his daughter, Lana
Nelson, told Texas Monthly magazine of her famously generous and
free-spending father. In anticipation of negotiations with the
IRS breaking down, Willie Nelson had his daughter remove his
beloved guitar, Trigger, from his Texas home and ship it to him
in Hawaii, where he was golfing when the feds raided his home on
November 9, 1990. "As long as I got my guitar," Willie Nelson
said, "I'll be fine."
Ultimately, Nelson did get to keep his guitar and even got his
Texas ranch back, but not before the government auctioned his
home to the highest bidder in January 1991. That bidder, however,
was a Nelson fan who purchased the ranch at the behest of a group
of farmers who threw their support behind Nelson in thanks for
his work in organizing the Farm Aid charitable concerts.
In June 1991, Nelson released a compilation album entitled The
IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?, the first and perhaps last
major-label record album ever released under a strict
revenue-sharing agreement with the Internal Revenue Service.
While the revenues generated by The IRS Tapes did not come close
to settling the debt on its own, Nelson did manage to retire his
debt to the federal government by 1993.
73, K.O. and Billie
"On the Road Again... "
E-Mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
HomeBBS: KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
Outpost Version 2.6.0 c29
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
