I’ve seen a number of people here doubting Phil’s state tax situation. I personally believe he got nailed with back taxes this last year. However, I believe he had no idea what he owed and assumed he owed about what he would have owed in CT. So I decided to crunch some numbers this afternoon.
I assumed he made $90,000 per year. This is going off the estimates of $80k to $100k I’ve seen around here. As an “entertainer”, he would fall under the highest tax rate of 1.5%, giving us $1,350. However he would have qualified for a small business tax break that brings his liability down to $1,015. There is a 29% penalty for being 3 months late and a 2% interest rate charge in 2015 and 2016 bringing the total around $1,300 per year. His back taxes would have come up to about $2,700 total and current taxes to $1,015. Connecticut, however, has a tax rate of 5.5% (6% if over $100k), which would have brought his entire tax bill to about $15k before penalties and interest.
I think this is why he was convinced he was going to lose the house back when he first found out he owed the state of Washington and convinced even his paypigs wouldn’t be able to bail him out. But at some point he did find out how much he owed and his mood became much better (possibly before thanksgiving when he finally decided to go public). Now here’s the real kicker, per state law, tips are NOT taxable. So his tax bill could have been considerably smaller than what I laid out here, nearly by half.
One thing that can be said about Phil is he pays his taxes. I have no doubt he set aside some of that money from the last Beg-a-Thon to pay his federal taxes. Beg-a-Thon 2: Electric Begaloo is just his attempt to finally get that 4K TV and PS4Pro he’s been drooling over.