A federal judge in Philadelphia recently ordered Academy Award-nominated actor Terrence Howard to settle nearly $1 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The decision reportedly came shortly after Howard allegedly made threats towards a Justice Department lawyer and expressed his belief that taxing the descendants of slaves was “immoral.”
The 54-year-old star, best known for his role in the TV hit Empire, has reportedly been embroiled in the legal battle with the IRS for over a year.
The IRS claimed that Howard failed to pay $578,000 in income taxes between 2010 to 2019.
Despite persistent efforts by the IRS to recover the unpaid taxes, Howard reportedly remained unyielding.
Efforts to resolve the matter in court were met with minimal cooperation from the actor, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Instead, Howard's only response was reportedly a voicemail left for the lead tax attorney handling the case – a voicemail in which he vehemently denied owing any taxes and issued threats to publicly shame the attorney by posting details of the lawsuit online.
The transcript of the voicemail, submitted as evidence in recent court filings, shed light on Howard's defiance in the face of the legal proceedings against him.
“Four hundred years of forced labor and never receiving any compensation for it,” Howard said in the alleged message. “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,” the embattled Empire star said in another alleged voicemail message.
“But since you do not have the ability or the courage to do it, let’s try this in court,” Howard charged. “We’re going to bring you down.”
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Meanwhile, Howard failed to submit a formal response to the lawsuit.
Flash forward to a court hearing in Philadelphia last week, and U.S. District Judge John F. Murphy sided with the government and granted their request to issue a default judgment of $903,115 against the actor.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, this recent court order against Howard came just weeks after the actor sued his former agency – Creative Artists Agency – for breach of fiduciary duty.
Howard claimed his agents were not looking out for his best interest when it came to his salary on Empire in the December lawsuit.
“Not only did it become abundantly clear that his agents led him on a path to rely on information that was misleading, he discovered that this was the result of the fact that CAA was not acting in his best interest, but in the in the interest of their own financial benefit as well as the interest of the Production Companies and the producers, Daniels and Strong,” the actor’s complaint read.
Creative Artists Agency asked the court to dismiss the "utterly meritless" lawsuit brought by Howard in a response filed early last month.