The Biggest Celebrity IRS Audits

Fitness guru and television personality Richard Simmons owed the IRS about $24,000 covering the tax years 2007-2015. The IRS placed a tax lien on his businesses and property after the feds claimed he owed back taxes.

TV reality star Jon Gosselin of “Jon & Kate Plus 8” fame got a dose of reality in 2013 when the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue filed a $39,000 tax lien for taxes that he did not pay in 2009.

Dustin Diamond, who starred in the sitcom “Saved by the Bell,” could not be saved from his tax obligations. He owed the state of Wisconsin $93,768 for an unspecified tax period.

Plaxico Burress, a Super Bowl champion wide receiver with the New York Giants, had a federal tax lien filed against him in 2012. The IRS said he and his wife failed to pay income taxes in 2007 and 2009, leaving an outstanding bill of $98,064.76. That’s not the worst thing that happened in his life. In November 2008, he dropped a gun he was carrying at a nightclub and it discharged, wounding him in the leg.

Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Chuck Berry (“Johnny B. Goode,” “Roll Over Beethoven”) toured the nation in the 1970s and was paid in cash for his shows. The IRS charged him with failure to pay taxes on those earnings, with a tax debt totaling $110,000. He pled guilty to tax evasion in 1979 and was sentenced to four months in prison and 1,000 hours of community service, which he fulfilled by performing benefit concerts.