According to new reports, Ja Rule and his wife Aisha Atkins are now being sued by the Internal Revenue Service for over $3 million dollars over unpaid taxes.
Shared just yesterday, Radar Online claimed that the IRS’ suit against the couple regards taxes owed from 2005-2010 and 2012-2017 — resulting in an overall amount allegedly due to the governmental agency of $3,139,237.76. While they reported that the rapper hasn’t filed a response to the IRS’ case just yet, the site did say that he’s enlisted the help of his “longtime attorney,” Stacy Richman.
Messily, Radar Online additionally provided a brakdown of the alleged amount owed in unpaid taxes for each of the aformentioned years of missed payments, which reads as follows: $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).
If you didn’t know, this isn’t the first time Ja Rule, born Jeffery Atkins, has publicly faced financial issues. Back in 2011, the Queens-raised rapper pled guilty to tax evasion after failing to pay his taxes from 2004-2008 and reportedly had to pay over $1 million dollars in back taxes and fines in addition to serving 28 months in prison. More notoriously, the rapper additionally made headlines when, as an investor in Bill McFarland’s infamous Fyre Festival in 2018 — which ended in an utter disaster — he was reprimanded and received widespread backlash for the financial damage he and McFarland caused to the Bahamian people where the festival took place. As per All Hip Hop’s reporting, “Both Ja Rule and his partner Billy McFarland were hit with multiple lawsuits over the Fyre fiasco. One group of attendees recently won a $2 million class-action settlement.”
Despite distancing himself from his involvement in the infamous festival and all the financial issues that swirled it, the outlet reported that Ja Rule’s “still attempting to get paid off the botched concert.” Regardless, it seems like the IRS is keeping their eye on him and his wife, so hopefully, things work out for the best.