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A federal judge ordered actor Terrence Howard to pay nearly $1 million in back taxes, interest and penalties.
The action comes after Howard allegedly threatened a Justice Department lawyer and claimed that it is “immoral for the United States government to tax the descendants of slaves.”
He is accused of ignoring IRS efforts to collect $578,000 in income taxes that he says he did not pay between 2010 and 2019.
Howard was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the film. Hustle and flowand was the star of the television hit Empire.
He was sued by the Department of Justice in 2022 after he reportedly failed to respond to their requests beyond a voicemail he allegedly left on the phone of the case’s lead prosecutor. In that message, Howard denied owing anything and threatened to post the lawsuit on the Internet, thus embarrassing the lawyer.
“Four hundred years of hard labor and never receiving any compensation for it,” the actor said in the message, according to a transcript. “Now you have the nerve to try to prosecute and tax the descendants of a broken people that you are responsible for causing the breakup.”
The recording interrupted Howard mid-sentence. But he called the lawyer again to continue.
“In truth, the entire United States should, by default, become the property of the descendants of slaves,” he said. “But since you don’t have the ability (or) the courage to do it, let’s try this in court. … We’re going to take you down.”
That was Howard’s last response, the court stated.
U.S. District Judge John F. Murphy granted the government’s request to enter a default judgment of $903,115 against the actor.
This is not Howard’s first encounter with payments owed to the government.
State tax liens totaling nearly $639,000 were filed against his 2,450-square-foot property in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, in 2005 and 2006. They were resolved, according to court records. The IRS also placed a $1.1 million lien on the property in 2010 for Howard’s failure to pay income taxes in 2007 and 2008.
In 2019, the California State Franchise Tax Board levied Howard with another lien, alleging he owed $144,000 dating back to 2010.