Teresa Giudice, Martha Stewart and Wesley Snipes are part of an unfortunate group of celebrities who have publicly dealt with tax problems.
Whether it’s tax liens, income tax discrepancies or unpaid back taxes, the IRS doesn’t seem to generally discriminate based on celebrity status. Unfortunately, celebrities who run afoul of the tax man often are not afforded the opportunity to clear up their financial mess quietly. These disputes can create huge controversy and even taint the way celebrities who are in tax trouble are viewed by the public.
Keep scrolling for a look at famous faces who have publicly navigated high-profile tax problems in recent years:
Teresa Giudice and Luis Ruelas
The Real Housewives of New Jersey OG’s legal issues notoriously became fodder for her cast mates on the Bravo show. In 2014, Teresa and then-husband Joe Giudice both pled guilty to committing fraud, along with Joe’s failure to file a tax return between 2004 and 2008.
Stars in lockup. Plenty of reality TV personalities have faced legal trouble over the years, but only a handful have served time for their crimes. Teresa Giudice and her ex-husband, Joe Giudice, both spent time behind bars after they were convicted on fraud charges in 2015. The Turning the Tables author served 11 months at […]
Teresa served 11 months of a 15-month prison sentence for fraud, while Joe was sentenced to 41 months and ultimately deported to his native Italy. (Teresa and Joe later divorced.) Viewers watched along as the Giudice children dealt with their parents’ incarcerations in the 2015 Bravo special Teresa Checks In.
“I wish I could do everything differently,” Teresa exclusively told Us Weekly of her legal trouble in October 2014. “But then again, maybe not, because this is a life lesson that I need to learn and will learn, and will teach my children for the rest of my life, just as Judge Salas told me she expected me to do.”
In 2025, it was reported that Teresa and second husband, Ruelas, are facing more than $3 million in tax liens, which are the government’s legal claim against a person who fails to pay tax debt. The couple have yet to comment on their reported financial trouble. Us Weekly has reached out to Teresa for comment.
Martha Stewart
A decade before her stint in federal prison in her insider trading case, Stewart had to pay $220,000 in back taxes for her home in New York. The dispute between Stewart and tax authorities revolved around the mogul’s claim that she didn’t spend enough time at her New York residence to warrant paying taxes at that residence.
According to The New York Times, tax investigators consulted Stewart’s own magazine to help determine that she owed more than $200,000 in taxes, penalties and interest. Stewart ultimately settled with New York state, but her attorney insisted “no wrongdoing was found.”
Wesley Snipes
The Blade star served 28 months in federal prison after being convicted of tax evasion to the tune of $7 million. Snipes was accused of failing to file tax returns between 1999 and 2001, with the judge handing him the harshest sentence allowed under the law at the time.
Snipes appealed his conviction but his request was denied. Following his 2013 release, Snipes told The Guardian that he came out of federal prison as a “clearer person.”
“[I’m] clearer on my values, clearer on my purpose, clearer about my relationship with my ancestors and the great god and the great goddess above, and clearer on what I was going to do once I had my freedom back,” he told the outlet in 2020. “The biggest thing I got from it was learning the value of time and how we often squander it … I understand that very clearly now, having been away from my family and loved ones two and a half years.”
Ray Huger
Real Housewives of Potomac viewers learned in the season 3 premiere that Karen Huger’s husband Ray owed $1.5 million in back-due federal taxes, while his company was on the hook for more than $3 million. Karen said she found out about her husband’s tax issues through the media, leading to some uncomfortable on-air conversations for the couple.
“I really didn’t know,” she told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live in 2018, before clarifying: “He mentioned it to me and I did not remember because he didn’t hold a press conference with me and he certainly didn’t hold a conversation. He said, ‘I’m handling it.’ … It made me a better listener as a wife, that’s why he’s still sitting at the front of the [WWHL] audience with me.”
Later, in 2018, Karen told her RHOP cast mates that Ray’s tax troubles were resolved. Unfortunately, Karen was sentenced to one year behind bars for a completely separate matter in 2025, after being convicted of a DUI the previous year.
Nicolas Cage
The Academy Award winner paid $6 million in 2012 to settle a dispute with the IRS over accusations that he owed $14 million in back taxes.
Addressing the controversy on Good Morning America in 2012, Cage said, “I mean everybody makes mistakes. It’s part of being human. When we make mistakes, I think sometimes it can be a great lesson because it puts you into looking for something. Some people say you have to be a sinner before you can be a saint.”
Christina Fulton says she is “heartbroken” to be in court with her ex Nicolas Cage and their son, Weston. Fulton sued the pair after she was allegedly physically attacked by Weston. She claims Cage played a role in the alleged assault. (Cage and Weston have denied the allegations.) While speaking to TMZ outside the courthouse […]
Cage later told GQ that he agreed to star in a series of low-profile, straight-to-VOD action movies in order to settle his debt with the IRS.
“When I was doing four movies a year, back to back to back, I still had to find something in them to be able to give it my all,” Cage insisted. “They didn’t work, all of them. Some of them were terrific, like Mandy, but some of them didn’t work. But I never phoned it in. So if there was a misconception, it was that. That I was just doing it and not caring. I was caring.”
Marc Anthony
Anthony said in 2007 that he was unaware he had not filed personal income and business taxes between 2000 and 2004. The singer ultimately agreed to pay $2.5 million in penalties and back taxes to avoid prosecution.
“Our client was shocked to learn, as a result of the District Attorney’s investigation, that his corporate and personal taxes had not been filed or paid in several years,” Anthony’s representative, Blanca LaSalle, told CBS News at the time.
“This revelation was especially surprising considering the fact that he specifically engaged a business management company, at significant cost, to prepare and file those tax returns, and to pay any tax due, during the period of time covered by the investigation.”
The Situation
Jersey Shore star Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino was charged with tax fraud for not paying taxes on $8.9 million in 2014, before additional charges were levied against Mike and his brother Marc for tax evasion. Mike was sentenced to eight months in prison in October 2018, while his brother Marc was ordered to serve 24 months.
In September 2019, MTV cameras were on hand when Mike was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York. Mike later told Entertainment Tonight that he’d used his time behind bars to change up his fitness regime.
“I went to sleep every night at 10 p.m. I woke up every morning at 7 a.m. and did fasted cardio for about an hour,” he said in September 2019. “My window of intermittent fasting was between 16 and 17 hours on the weekdays, and 18 and 19 hours on the weekends. I had to continually challenge myself, whether it was in the gym and/or diet.”
Ja Rule
The “Always on Time” rapper (real name Jeffrey Atkins) faced a variety of legal issues in the early 2010s, including a 28-month prison sentence for failing to pay taxes on $3 million earned between 2004 and 2006. New Jersey’s Department of Justice confirmed in 2011 that Ja Rule took a plea deal in which he admitted fault for not paying taxes for five years.
“Taxpayers do not have the luxury of deciding whether to comply with laws,” Judge Patty Shwartz told the hip-hop icon during his sentencing hearing.
Ja Rule was allowed to serve his sentence concurrently with a separate illegal gun possession conviction. He agreed to re-file his taxes for the years in question and pay back all outstanding fees.
Lindsay Lohan
The Mean Girls star faced a lien of $93,701 in 2012 over an unpaid federal tax bill, in addition to owing money for her 2010 and 2011 taxes.
Lohan famously paid off her 2009 bill using a $1 million check gifted to her by her Scary Movie 5 costar Charlie Sheen.
“Charlie has a long history of helping out his friends in many ways, and this is just another example of that,” Sheen’s spokesperson said in November 2012.
Lohan reportedly paid off the 2009 tax bill in full and used the remaining sum from Sheen towards her 2010 IRS fees.
Richard Hatch
The original Survivor winner faced repeated run-ins with the IRS following his time in Borneo. He was initially convicted of three counts of attempted tax evasion and filing a fraudulent tax return in 2006, in relation to his $1 million grand prize from Survivor and other earnings. He served 51 months behind bars.
Hatch was ordered to amend his tax returns and pay back necessary fees, but when he failed to do so, he was sent back to prison in 2011 to serve nine additional months behind bars.
The reality star’s second stint in prison prevented Hatch from appearing at the live finale of The Celebrity Apprentice in 2011, after he’d filmed a season of the NBC show between his two terms of incarceration.