Britney Spears is once again locked in a legal battle, this time facing off with the IRS over an alleged tax bill of more than $600,000 tied to her 2021 earnings.
According to newly filed court documents obtained by TMZ, the IRS sent Spears a Notice of Deficiency, claiming she failed to fully pay her federal taxes for that year.
Spears isn’t backing down, arguing that the IRS got it all wrong. In her legal filing, she disputes the entire assessment and insists she doesn’t owe the government “so much as a dime.”
Her petition claims the IRS made several mistakes while reviewing her return, including a major adjustment involving Shiloh Standing Inc., a company reportedly set up by her father, Jamie Spears, shortly after her conservatorship began.
According to Spears, the IRS wrongly recalculated her share of the company’s income by $1,390,922. She also says the agency mishandled her deductions, alleging it improperly altered her claimed write-offs by $334,372.
She’s also contesting an added penalty of $120,143.80 that the IRS included as part of the supposed underpayment.
In the filing, Spears maintains that she fully paid her 2021 taxes and has records to prove it. She’s asking the court to rule that there was no deficiency in her original filing and to officially dismiss the IRS’s claim.
This isn’t Spears’ first run-in with tax issues, though. Back in 2013, the State Journal-Register reported that she and her then-ex-husband, Kevin Federline, were slapped with a $37,712.71 tax lien by the California Franchise Tax Board over unpaid state income taxes dating back to 2004.
That year was one of the busiest — and most lucrative — periods of Spears’ career. In 2004, she released her debut fragrance, Curious, dropped a greatest hits album, and put out her cover of Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative.”
She also kicked off the Onyx Hotel Tour in support of In the Zone. Federline had income of his own at the time as well, including a role in the dance movie You Got Served.
At the time, Spears’ representative said the California tax lien stemmed from an error and would be cleared up.
