Steve Harvey had folks on social media baffled this week when the entertainment business’s hardest working employee revealed that he owed the Internal Revenue Service millions of dollars at one point in his illustrious career.
During a recent appearance on Tuesday, March 15, episode of the “Earn Your Leisure Podcast” with co-hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings, the “Family Feud” host returned to an account he has discussed previously about owing the IRS $22 million in 2008. “My accountant died, and an accountant that worked for him called my lawyer and said, ‘We have a problem,’” he told the hosts.
The 65-year-old continued, “She had found on the floor all my tax forms for seven years, signed with the checks stapled to them.” The longtime game show discovered that the people he hired to handle his finances “were cashing the checks, keeping the money, and not turning in the tax forms.”
When asked how they could use checks that were signed out to the government, Harvey explained, “They didn’t cash it; they took the money out the account that matched the exact number.”
Harvey ultimately spent the next seven years paying back $650,000 a month, including his current taxes and daily living expenses.
Yet, It wasn’t the first time Harvey opened up about his troubled finances. While talking to Yahoo News, who covered his tax troubles back in 2016, the West Virginia native revealed the incident happened shortly after he married his third wife, Majorie.
The television personality thought he would lose everything he ever had, including the former fashion designer. “I sat my wife down, and she cried, and I held her, and I told her it was going to be all right; I was going to get us out,” he said.
The game show host kept his promise. “I just went to work. I took every gig and every contract, and I worked and worked. I hung in there, and I had a big deal come through in 2012, and I got free. And it’s been OK ever since,” he said.
Harvey’s admission stunned fans who flocked to social media to discuss the news they had just heard, including one Twitter user who wrote, “Steve Harvey owing the IRS millions of dollars because people were stealing from him and having to pay $650,000 a month for 4 years is some crazy sh-t. Never went to jail because he never missed a payment. Bro…” They added, “Can you imagine a monthly $650,000 bill while also keeping up with normal everyday life??”
“Steve Harvey has confidence that I never seen before in my life. This man is unstoppable… this dude had to pay the IRS $650,000 a month for 4 years because his accountant was stealing his check payments. He made every payment ON TIME… ON TIME!!! That’s $31.2 MILLION DOLLARS.”
“Steve Harvey talking about how he paid the IRS $650,000 a month for 4years because his accountant was robbing him blind and stealing his cheque payments is crazy. No wonder he has been one of the most hard working men in television. The taxes weren’t going to repay themselves.”
