IRS: Prince’s estate undervalued
The ongoing controversy over the money left behind by Prince when he died without a will is heating up again after Internal Revenue Service calculations showed that executors of the rock star’s estate undervalued it by 50%, or about $80 million.
The IRS determined that Prince’s estate is worth $163.2 million, overshadowing the $82.3 million valuation submitted by Comerica Bank & Trust, the estate’s administrator. The discrepancy primarily involves Prince’s music publishing and recording interests, according to court documents.
Documents show the IRS believes that Prince’s estate owes another $32.4 million in federal taxes, roughly doubling the tax bill based on Comerica’s valuation, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
The IRS also has ordered a $6.4 million “accuracy-related penalty” on Prince’s estate, citing a “substantial” undervaluation of assets, documents show.
Prince’s death of a fentanyl overdose on
April 21, 2016, created one of the largest and most complicated probate court proceedings in Minnesota history. Estimates of his net worth have varied widely, from $100 million to $300 million.
With Prince’s probate case dragging on, his six sibling heirs have grown increasingly unhappy, particularly as the estate has doled out tens of millions of dollars to lawyers and consultants.
Comerica and its lawyers at Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis maintain their estate valuations are solid. Comerica sued the IRS this summer in U.S. Tax Court in Washington, D.C., saying the agency’s calculations are riddled with errors.
“What we have here is a classic battle of the experts — the estate’s experts and the IRS’ experts,” said Dennis Patrick, an estate planning attorney at DeWitt LLP in Minneapolis who is not involved in the case. Valuing a large estate, Patrick added, “is way more of an art than a science.”
‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ singer dies: Gerry Marsden, the British singer who was instrumental in turning a song from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel” into one of the great anthems in the world of soccer, has died. He was 78.
His friend Pete Price, in a post on Instagram after speaking to Marsden’s family, said the Gerry and the Pacemakers frontman died after a short illness related to a heart infection. “I’m sending all the love in the world to (his wife) Pauline and his family,” he said. “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
Marsden was the lead singer of the band that found fame in the Merseybeat scene in the 1960s. Though another Liverpool band — The Beatles — reached superstardom, Gerry and the Pacemakers will always have a place in the city’s consciousness because of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
“I thought what a beautiful song. I’m going to tell my band we’re going to play that song,” Marsden said in 2018 when recalling the first time he heard the song at the cinema.
“So I went back and told my buddies we’re doing a ballad called ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.’ ”
Marsden is best known for his band’s rendition of the song from “Carousel,” which was a 1945 musical that became a feature film in 1956. The Pacemakers’ cover version was released in October 1963 and became the band’s third No. 1 hit on the British singles chart. It was adopted by fans of the soccer club Liverpool and is sung with spine-tingling passion before each home game of the 19-time English champion.
Jan. 4 birthdays: Actor Barbara Rush is 94. Actor Dyan Cannon is 82. Country singer Patty Loveless is 64. Singer Michael Stipe is 61. Actor Dave Foley is 58. Actor Julia Ormond is 56. Actor Damon Gupton is 48. Singer Spencer Chamberlain is 38. Comedian-actor Charlyne Yi is 35.