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Jacques Cousteau’s Son Owes IRS $3 Million

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Robert Snell over at the Tax Watchdog has another tax delinquent scoop and for the first time – as far as we can remember – it involves a dashing adventurous type as opposed to your run-of-the-mill hip-hop artist or Nicolas Cage.


Jean-Michel Cousteau (whose beard has to be the inspiration for Steve Zissou, even though the film is a parody of the old man) owes the IRS and the State of California around $3 million from a slew of liens:

• The IRS filed a $109,768 lien against him July 20.
• The IRS filed a $480,061 lien June 22.
• The IRS filed a $600,076 lien June 15.
• The state of California filed a $60,198 lien against him April 29.
• The IRS filed a $212,748 lien Dec. 16, 2009.
• The IRS filed a $238,852 lien Oct. 15, 2009.
• The state of California filed a $41,860 lien Oct. 8, 2009.
• The IRS filed a $193,496 lien April 14, 2009.
• The IRS filed a $187,423 lien April 14, 2009.
• The IRS filed a $518,227 lien April 6, 2009.
• The IRS filed a $396,586 lien Feb. 1, 2008.

Jesus, man. No room for a CPA on your boats? We realize that some have weight issues which could cause a problem but just throw them in the water regularly and they’ll shed the extra pounds in no time.

Ocean explorer underwater on taxes [Tax Watchdog]

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That Apology from the IRS? Yeah, Not Going to Happen

shulman.jpgIf you’re a bigshot at the IRS there are a lot of things that you don’t have to do. For one, you don’t really have to meet anyone’s expectations. For another, you don’t have to worry about delaying plans just because some practicing CPAs have some silly concerns.
The latest perk of being Doug Shulman? Not having to apologize to anyone.
TaxProf Blog:

The Tax Court yesterday ruled that it lacks jurisdiction to order the IRS to apologize to a taxpayer. Caldwell v. Commissioner, T.C. Summ. Op. 2009-169 (Nov. 18, 2009):
The part of Caldwell’s motion which we characterize as a “Request for Apology” asks that we require the IRS to enter into the record “a written apology to the Petitioner, signed by the Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service” …
…
The IRS objected to the Request for Apology on the ground that Congress has not, through section 7430 (relating to administrative or litigation costs) or otherwise, authorized us to grant such relief. [Fn.3] We agree.

There you have it American Taxpayer. Under the law, the IRS doesn’t have to apologize to anyone, despite the evidence that they should probably be apologizing constantly. Going forward, if you want an apology, run down a Republican member of the House of Representatives.
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