He’s used to red carpets and VIP service.
But, as Lil Wayne is learning, celebrities get no special treatment from the U.S. government.
The chart-topping rapper just handed over $7.72million in back taxes after the U.S. Internal Revenue Service threatened to seize his $11million Miami mansion.
The Grammy winner, real name is Dwayne Michael Carter, owed a reported $3.35 million in taxes for 2008 and $2.25 million for 2009, plus other unpaid taxes and late fees dating back in 2002.
As time dragged on, the IRS placed liens on Wayne’s sprawling 15,501 square foot home in an attempt to collect on the debt.
The three story, waterfront mansion is made of glass, steel and marble and boasts a three-level guesthouse.
A Milli star Wayne originally paid $11.6 million for the home located on La Gorce Island, and has been renting it out for the past two years.
The IRS is notorious for seizing assets and even locking celebrities up for unpaid taxes.
In 2010, Wesley Snipes was jailed for three years for failing to pay up. The star of movies including White Men Can’t Jump and Passenger 57 received the maximum sentence for dodging more than $15 million (£7.5 million) in federal income taxes on earnings from the peak of his career.
Survivor winner Richard Hatch was also sent to jail for failure to pay taxes.
After willing the CBS competition’s grand prize of $1m, Hatch failed to pay taxes on his reality TV earnings.
In 2006, he was found guilty of tax evasion and served part of a six-year prison sentence as a result.
The federal government also forced country superstar Willie Nelson to pay more than $16 million in back taxes and fines.
Nicolas Cage, Lindsay Lohan, and Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne have also faced the wrath of the IRS.
In 2011, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne paid a back tax bill of $1.7m short after learning about the tax issue from media reports.
In a statement sent to gossip blogger Perez Hilton, Sharon claimed she had no prior knowledge of her family’s tax troubles, until she heard about it from her publicist.
‘I received a phone call from my publicist who had a reporter on the other line informing her that the IRS had just put a lien on one of our properties,’ Sharon said at the time.
