Kanye West recently claimed he owed millions in taxes after the IRS put a hold on four of his bank accounts.
The “Heartless” rapper, 45, alleged that his “finance people” told him he needed to “pay a lot of taxes” during the Monday, November 28, episode of the “Timcast IRL” podcast.
“I’m talking about literally finding out that they were trying to put me in prison this morning,” West said. “But I found out — OK, so they froze, they put a $75 million hold on four of my accounts. And then they said, ‘You owe a lot of taxes.’”
After sharing that it took him about “six hours” to figure out how much “a lot” was, the Yeezy designer shared that the total amounted to “around $50 million.”
During the episode, West admitted that he was “obviously not the most financially literate person on the planet” and had to ask “different CFOs” whether what he owed qualified as “tax evasion.”
“So now I’m having — I get to actually learn how to run a company. I get to learn how to, you know, to count, really,” he said, explaining that he “stopped growing” once he became famous at age 24. “It’s like I didn’t even know where to put the money.”
The news comes just a few days after the “Gold Digger” artist revealed his plans to run in the 2024 presidential election.
The “Stronger” crooner initially launched his campaign via his newly resurrected Twitter account on November 24. West captioned a series of campaign ads with the hashtag “#Ye24.”
The Chicago native has been the subject of multiple controversies over the last few months. In October, West made headlines after he wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt to his Paris Fashion Week show. While multiple stars, including Gigi Hadid, Hailey Bieber, Diddy and Vogue’s Gabriella Karefa-Johnson have since called out West for his choice, he has only doubled down on his stance.
Weeks later, West wrote several antisemitic messages on Instagram and Twitter, in which he alleged that he wanted to go “death con 3” on Jews.
“I will say I’m sorry for the people that I hurt with the ‘death con’ [comments],” the Grammy winner eventually said during an October interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, though he added that he did not regret the antisemitic remarks. “I feel like I caused hurt and confusion. And I’m sorry for the families of the people that had nothing to do with the trauma that I had been through, and that I used my platform where you say hurt people hurt people. I was hurt.”
West’s comments have subsequently lost him multimillion-dollar brand deals, with Adidas, Balenciaga, Gap, Vogue and CAA (Creative Arts Agency) all cutting ties.
On Tuesday, November 29, Us Weekly confirmed that West and ex-wife Kim Kardashian had settled their divorce after their initial split in February 2021.
According to the documents, KKW Beauty founder, 42, and the “Famous” crooner will receive joint custody with “equal access” to their four children: North, 9, Saint, 6, Chicago, 4, and Psalm, 3. The settlement also states that the musician will pay the reality star $200,000 a month for child support and is responsible for 50 percent of their kids’ educational and security expenses.
Last week, Rolling Stone published a report revealing that Yeezy employees had written an open letter to Adidas accusing West of mistreatment in the office and inappropriate actions toward staffers, and alleged that West previously showed naked pictures of his then-wife to people at the company.
On Friday, a source exclusively told Us that The Kardashians star was “disgusted” by the claims and is trying to “see what photos the former employees saw” in order to “confirm” the allegations.
“She feels violated and horrified,” the insider added at the time.
West has frequently discussed the challenges of coparenting. In September, he claimed he had to “scream” about what his kids were “wearing.”
“I do have a voice, but I had to fight for it,” he said during an appearance on Good Morning America. “That hurts you when you have to scream about what your kids are wearing. It was all a disregard for something I co-created. I co-created the children.”
The Skims founder, however, slammed her ex in February for his “constant attacks on me in interviews and on social media.”
“Divorce is difficult enough on our children and Kanye’s obsession with trying to control and manipulate our situation so negatively and publicly is only causing further pain for all,” Kardashian wrote via Instagram at the time.
