Tyler Perry fired his entire accounting team when he discovered that they had mismanaged his finances and that the IRS owed him $9 million.
The famous filmmaker shared his story with guests at the 2022 Earn Your Leisure Conference, where he spoke about the challenges he faced in business and the many lessons he has learned along the way. “In business it’s ok to make mistakes, but do learn. Don’t let it keep happening over and over again,” Perry said before opening up about his accounting problem.
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“So this audit went on for three years,” Perry said in a video of the conference posted to Twitter. “I’m spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in accountants for the audit,” he said. Then, he broke the wild news to the audience.
“We get to the end of the audit, and the IRS owed me $9 million — they owed me $9 million!”
Perry went on to explain that his accountants didn’t initially recognize the severity of the issue.
“And all my accountants come running and say ‘Isn’t that great? Isn’t that great?’ And I say, ‘Hell no! How did you miss me paying $9 million?'” (RELATED: Shakira Calls Tax Fraud Allegations A ‘Salacious Press Campaign’)
Tyler Perry recently fired his entire accounting staff after finding out the IRS owed him $9 million due to overpayment‼️🤯 pic.twitter.com/tgu4LkVnU3
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) October 20, 2022
“Everybody gone! I had to stop going to H&R block for my taxes at some point,” he joked.
Perry described the eye-opening situation as being one of his biggest learning experiences, and he told the sold-out crowd what he is now doing differently to ensure that this doesn’t happen to him again.
“Money isn’t something that I had, and nobody taught me that taxes had to be paid,” he shared. “I didn’t go to college, but I paid for Harvard many times over in the mistakes that I made.”
“That’s how I run my business: Here’s the mistake. Let’s fix it. Let’s move forward,” Perry said.