Terrence Howard is being accused of owing back taxes, and he’s evoking his Black card to combat the claims.
Per a report from the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Empire actor is being ordered to pay pay nearly $1 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties following his alleged threats to a Justice Department lawyer, stating it was “immoral for the United States government to charge taxes to the descendants of slaves.”
According to the outlet, Howard evaded the IRS’s attempts for more than a year to collect $578,000 in income taxes the agency says he’s owned since 2010 through 2019.
After attempting to convene with Howard for months following the Justice Department suit that was filed against him in 2022, the Inquirer said the actor’s only response was allegedly a voicemail he left case’s lead tax attorney late last year.
“Four hundred years of forced labor and never receiving any compensation for it,” the actor allegedly said in the voicemail. “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.
He added allegedly: “In truth, the entire United States should, by default, become the property of the descendants of slaves,” he said. “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.”
Howard is not alone in allegedly defaulting on his taxes.
According to the Bradford Tax Institute, about 11.23 million Americans cumulatively own more than $125 billion in back taxes.