Whitney Houston’s estate will cough up seven figures to get the IRS off its back.
According to legal documents obtained by The Blast, the late singer’s estate settled with the feds last week, agreeing to pay $2,275,366 in owed taxes. Though that’s a pretty large sum, it is significantly less than the original amount the IRS was seeking.
Houston’s estate was initially ordered to pay $11 million (plus interest) in 2012, shortly after the artist died at the age of 48. The IRS concluded the estate had “underreported the singer’s royalties, residuals, and value of her image by $22.6 million.” The estate, however, claimed the feds’ calculations were incorrect, and insisted Houston’s “music royalties, digital performance royalties, motion picture, and TV residuals, and publicity rights” were worth $11.7 million.
The parties were expected to appear in court next month; however, the hearing was canceled after they inked the deal on Dec. 26.
You can consider this a bittersweet win for Houston's estate.
The legendary singer was founded dead February 11, 2012 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. She was found face down in a bathtub filled with hot water. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled the cause of death was drowning and the “effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.”
