Michael Jackson ’s family members have been withheld from accessing the financial distributions due to a years-long dispute between the estate and the IRS. The Thriller hitmaker’s beneficiaries Prince, 27, Paris , 26, and Bigi Jackson , 22, as well as his mother Katherine, 94, (beneficiary of a sub-trust) have been going back and forth with the IRS since the company audited the estate’s federal estate tax return. The IRS claimed a ‘note of deficiency’ and accused the estate of ‘undervaluing its assets’ before slamming an ‘an additional $700million (£550million) in taxes and penalties’ in a May 28 filing obtained by People .
This issue was first tackled in 2021 when the estate took the IRS to tax court and won. Since then the estate has filed a motion for reconsideration over the valuation of Jackson’s Sony music catalogue, Mijac. Until its worth is determined a value cannot be entered for the estate’s tax purposes at which point both parties can enter for a final judgment, therefore the figures might yet change.
Attorneys requested that a portion of the estate remain under administration and be distributed to Jackson’s family trust, which was denied. Instead, the executors, John Branca and John McClain, suggested that until the issue is resolved, the estate should provide for Michael’s kids and his mother through ‘the family allowance’. When the singer died in 2009 the estate had been saddled with debt and near bankruptcy.
Over the years the est.
