54-year-old Terrence Howard amassed himself a bill of nearly $1 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties following a threat against a Justice Department lawyer. Initially only $578,000 in unpaid income taxes between 2010 and 2019, the Justice Department attempted to get him to respond for ages and filed suit in 2022. Largely going by without a response, his only communication came via a two-part voicemail he left for the lead attorney back in November.
“Four hundred years of forced labor and never receiving any compensation for it. 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. But since you do not have the ability [or] the courage to do it, let’s try this in court…We’re gonna bring you down.”
With the addition of the California Franchise Tax Board going after him in 2019 for $144,000 dating back to 2010, Howard has been trying to pay his taxes with a card with no purchasing power. As process servers and even US Marshalls have attempted to serve him or detain Howard, the man keeps slipping away and not paying. Even turning up to hotels where the actor has allegedly stayed while shooting has yielded no results.
Upon finally being successful during a scheduled appearance at the Twin Cities Film Fest in St. Louis Park, MN, Howard released his anger in the voicemail a month later. With no word about adding on charges for his messages, officials have claimed an investigation was at least launched. Knowing Joe Biden, he’ll find a way to give him a pass or a pardon. God knows it would be the type of campaign trail message he’d want to send anyway.
