One of Atlanta’s favorite sons and funny men, Chris Tucker, has come to terms with the Internal Revenue Service and has agreed to pay $3 million in back taxes to settle a lawsuit with the Internal Revenue Service.
Tucker who found fame for films Friday, The Fifth Element, Money Talks, and Jackie Brown, and widespread popularity for the Rush Hour franchise is owed more than $9 million in taxes tax penalties, and interest from 2002, 2006, 2008, and 2010.
Tucker agreed to pay off the debt over a 10-year period but ultimately “neglected, refused, or failed to fully pay the assessments against him,” the 16-page lawsuit stated, per USA Today.
Tucker made monthly payments of $380,000 and paid consistently until he defaulted in 2019, Vibe reports. In 2014, the Atlanta native settled a $14 million tax bill from the IRS. A lien was placed on his various properties to settle the matter. According to Vibe, Tucker’s team attributed the lien to “poor accounting and business management.”
The stand-up comedian and actor made his debut in 1992 in the HBO comedy series “Def Comedy Jam,” where he frequently appeared on the show during the 1990s, but he made millions in the wildly popular Rush Hour series of movies. He reportedly earned $3 million, $20 million, $25 million for Rush Hour 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Rapper/actor Ice Cube previously revealed that Tucker turned down $12M to reprise his famous Smokey character in Friday.
Speaking with the FlixTalk podcast in 2021, Tucker explained why he didn’t want to sign on for two planned sequels for the hit comedy film.
“Back then, I gotta tell you, one of the reasons why I didn’t do the second one was because of the weed,” Tucker said.
“Because I said, man, that movie became a phenomenon. I don’t want everybody smoking weed and I never really told people this because I kind of forgot about it, but it was one of the reasons why I didn’t do it. Because I said, ‘I don’t wanna represent everybody smoking weed,’” he revealed.
“And that’s one of the reasons why I said ‘Nah,’ ” he continued. “I didn’t wanna keep doing that character. It probably was good for me because it kept me moving to the next phase and next movies.”
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