Ja Rule Sued By IRS Over Alleged $3 Million Tax Debt
April 27 2021, Updated 2:15 p.m. ET
Rapper Ja Rule and his wife Aisha Atkins are accused of refusing to pay over $3 million in federal taxes.
According to court documents obtained by Radar, lawyers representing the United State of America filed suit against Ja Rue (real name: Jeffrey Atkins) and Aisha. They explain the case was brought after the IRS requested they take the rapper to court.
The suit claims money is owed for the years 2005-2010 and 2012-2017. The government says the two owe a total of $3,139,237.76.
The breakdown is $357,421.23 (2005), $518,700.88 (2006), $348,087.49 (2007) $267,193 (2008), $198,817.99 (2009), $47,901.53 (2010), $128,926.37 (2012), $116,720.65 (2013), $229,577.62 (2014), $212,270.42 (2015), $526,431.46 (2016) and $187,188.52 (2017).
The IRS claims despite numerous demands for payment, Ja Rule refuses to pay up on the bill. They are demanding the court enter a judgment against Ja Rule and his wife for $3.1 million. The rapper has yet to file a response to the case but has hired his longtime attorney, Stacy Richman.
Ja Rule has a long history of issues filing and paying his taxes.
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Back in 2011, Ja Rule was sentenced to 28 months in prison for failing to file income tax returns with the IRS. The rapper failed to file his taxes between 2004 and 2008. He owed over $1.1 million in taxes on the years.
At the time, the rapper was serving a prison sentence due to a 2007 arrest for gun possession. Ja Rule and Lil Wayne were both arrested following a concert.
Ja Rule reached a deal with prosecutors in the gun case in 2010. He pleaded guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon. He was sentenced to two years behind bars.
After he turned himself in, the feds hit him with the tax evasion charges. While in prison, Atkins worked out a deal with prosecutors over the tax evasion and agreed to pay $1 million back in unpaid taxes and penalties.
He was sentenced to two years, but the court allowed him to serve the two sentences concurrently. Per their deal, prosecutors also dropped counts related to Ja Rule not paying his taxes in 2007 and 2008. He was facing up to three years in prison.
During the court battle, Ja Rule said the idea that he didn’t pay his taxes was “bullshit.”
The rapper claimed he, "pays plenty of taxes, millions of dollars in taxes. I owed them a little bit more." Ja Rule blamed his financial issues on his split with Irv Gotti’s Murder Inc. label.
He said, “I had some issues when the whole Murder Inc. thing went down with my accountant, and she had some federal issues with the boys herself for doing some things, so I fell into a few issues there, but it's not an issue like that. That's being taken care of."
In 2017, Ja Rule was accused of running a scam with Billy McFarland for his involvement in the disastrous Fyre Festival. The rapper claimed he was duped into the situation.