Val Kilmer Into IRS For Half A Million

[Doktor Avalanche]

Actor Val Kilmer — earlier this year rumored to be a Democratic candidate for governor — reportedly owes more than half a million dollars in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. In recent months, Kilmer has disappeared from nearly any sort of political coverage.

From the Detroit News:

The Internal Revenue Service filed a $538,858 lien against Kilmer on July 15 in the Bergen County (N.J.) Clerk’s office.

Kilmer put up his 6,000 acre ranch for sale this April, hoping to get $33 million for the land near Pecos, New Mexico.

And what did Kilmer have to say about it?

“Kilmer’s agent, David Unger, did not return calls seeking comment,” Detroit News reporter Robert Snell wrote.

To political reporters in New Mexico who tried to get a hold of Kilmer for any sort of comment on any issue, that last part comes as no surprise.


Edit: Nobody seems to know why but apparently this isn't his first problem with the IRS...

SANTA FE (AP) — The state Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled against actor Val Kilmer and his ex-wife, actress Joanne Whalley, in a dispute over a tax refund of more than $300,000 sought by the couple.

The court said the Taxation and Revenue Department had no authority to act on the refund claim because the time period for doing so had expired.

Kilmer has a ranch near Santa Fe.

The refund claim was for $304,217 in personal income taxes paid for the year 1995. The couple said they were due the refund because Whalley — who had filed for divorce — had moved to California in the latter part of the year.

The claim was filed at the end of 1999, after California tax officials made a preliminary determination that Whalley had been a California resident as of August 1995.

The amended 1995 New Mexico return claiming the refund, which was filed by the couple's accountant, was not processed because the department lost it.

In addition, for three months in early 2000 the agency decided to delay work on prior-year claims while it caught up with processing the current returns.

Under state law, if the department doesn't approve or deny a claim within 120 days, taxpayers then have 90 days to either file a protest or go to court. Kilmer and Whalley did neither, and the 210-day window for the department to act on a claim expired, the court said, upholding a department hearing officer's ruling.

The Legislature "intended a clear and definite outer limit, of 210 days, on the department's authority to act on a claim for refund," the court held.

While the court said it was "sympathetic to taxpayers' plight" and did not approve of the department's conduct, it rejected the claim that the couple's accountant had been misled in conversations with department employees.

[LaVidaRoja]

That 2004 story had to do with STATE taxes. Both New Mexico and California are community property states. However, when a couple has earned income in both states, it basically requires a spread-sheet to determine which income is taxable in which state. This is particularly true for a year in which either spouse was a part-year resident of either state.