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Tuesday, June 6, 2023
Pop & Perjury: The IRS Valuation Struggle With The Property Of Michael Jackson
Beckett Cantley (Northeastern) & Geoffrey Dietrich (Cantley Dietrich), Pop & Perjury: The IRS Valuation Struggle with the Property of Michael Jackson, 21 New Hampshire L. Rev. 93 (2022):
When Michael Jackson died unexpectedly in Los Angeles, California, on June 25, 2009, his profession and earnings had been nearing an all-time low. Tormented by previous sexual abuse allegations, scandals, and questionable well being, Michael Jackson’s private funds had been presupposed to be in full disarray. Nevertheless, following his surprising dying, the worth of his property, which was reported to be close to to nothing, swelled because the world remembered his beloved contributions to the world and commenced to buy accordingly. Gross sales of Michael Jackson’s music started to soar excessive. The property’s worth soared even increased because it signed licensing agreements and launched new characteristic movies and theatrical materials of Michael Jackson.
Not surprisingly, the Inside Income Service (“IRS”) and the property disagreed over the quantity of property tax owed. The IRS additionally remembered how beloved Michael Jackson had been and determined to take situation with the valuation used on the property’s tax return. There have been three main factors of valuation disagreement, all of which contain mental property rights: (1) the property’s picture and likeness rights; (2) the property’s share of the Sony/ATV music catalog; and (3) the property’s curiosity in Mijac Music, a music publishing catalog proudly owning copyrights to many compositions written by Michael Jackson and different artists. With neither facet prepared to budge on its valuations, the dispute was to be settled within the U.S. Tax Court docket of Decide Mark Holmes.
One would suppose that with the end result of such a high-profile case resting nearly solely on the testimony of valuation specialists, the IRS would take nice care with any specialists chosen to testify since any error on the a part of an knowledgeable would have a damning impact on the whole case. Nevertheless, one can be disillusioned. The IRS’s sole knowledgeable witness perjured himself in courtroom testimony. In its opinion, the courtroom reasoned that the knowledgeable’s creditability “suffered significantly at trial” and his lack of creditability “affected our factfinding all through [the case].”
The article discusses: (1) the rise and fall of Michael Jackson throughout his life; (2) the small print of the valuation battle with the IRS that came about after his dying over numerous mental property; and (3) Decide Holmes’ reasoning for his conclusion, together with the perjury dedicated by the IRS’ knowledgeable.
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2023/06/pop-perjury-the-irs-valuation-war-with-the-estate-of-michael-jackson.html
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