Roy Jones Jr today became the latest in a long line of high profile boxers facing liens from the IRS over unpaid taxes.
Only last week it was revealed by the Detroitnews that former pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather was facing a $3.4 million dollar tax bill from income he earned in 2009.
Few were surprised at the time given Mayweather’s track record of money problems, he previous owed $6.1 million only a couple of years ago and has had numerous legal issues over his finances in recent years.
Jones’ own figure is slightly higher at $3.5 million.
His liens, both from Santa Rosa county in Florida are firstly concerning income he earned in 2009 ($629,085) and secondly in 2003 and 2004 ($2,946,650).
Mayweather tax trouble makes faster ring return more likely
Where Jones differs from Mayweather however is that he has an upcoming fight and also has his commentating job to fall back on. Jones (54-7, 40KOs) takes on dangerous up and coming cruiserweight Denis Lebedev (21-1, 16KOs) on May 21st at the Dynamo arena in Russia.
Lebedev last fought in December, suffering a controversial loss to German WBO champion Marco Huck that many felt should have gone the other way. Jones has been out of the ring since losing to long time rival Bernard Hopkins in April of last year, a fight that drew widespread criticism for its lack of action. Advertisement
The now semi-retired Mayweather by contrast has been out of the ring for close to a year and doesn’t presently look likely to fight again this year, although the tax issues he now faces might make a ring return happen sooner than he was planning.
It should be noted that a tax delinquency isn’t necessarily down to a fighter not being able to pay the amount owed, and can be down to either lax accounting or disputing the amount that they owe, in which case an eventual court case is the most likely outcome.
In the cases of Jones and Mayweather, neither of whom have yet commented on the liens, it isn’t clear what the circumstances are surrounding why they owe the amounts that they do, although the complexities of pay per view income likely plays a role.
Jones is hardly alone in his tax troubles either, the likes of Thomas Hearns, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and many others have all been in the same boat at one point or another, along with the aforementioned Floyd Mayweather.
Phil Granger, Pitt: “I’m a tax accountant, and trust me it isn’t that hard to work out what you owe each year. Why these guys don’t have people take care of this for them I’ll never know”
