MC Hammer, the legendary entertainer and friend (we met at the BizWorld luncheon in December 2007 and then catch up with each other at tech events), is the victim of a nasty, yet very sloppy smear campaign. Someone is reporting that he owes the Internal Revenue Service $600,000, and this wrongheaded information has been spread around the Internet. But not one to back down from a fight, Hammer says that he paid the IRS in an issue that's almost two decades old.
Today, Hammer issued this press release to me:
“I paid the IRS 100 percent of their claim,” said Stanley Burrell, better known by his rap star moniker
MC Hammer. “In the past year or so, they decided--wrongly--that I owed them additional taxes from 15 years ago. I am contesting this claim through my tax attorneys and my case is making its way through the IRS appeal process. I hope to be successful.”
Hammer said that the alleged past due amount of approximately $625,000 is not related to his current successful business ventures and have no impact on them. Hammer owns or works on several businesses including: Dance Jam, his own record label, production company, and musical appearances, as well as other ventures.
Hammer is currently being featured on “Hammertime,” television show on the A&E network. http://www.aetv.com/hammertime/. He has more 1.2 million followers on Twitter http://twitter.com/Mchammer.
He said news reports today incorrectly give the impression that that the music star is facing new financial issues, but that is not the case.
“I think the IRS claim is wrong and unfair,” he said. “When there was a sum of $7 million dollars available, the IRS took the amount they said was due them. Now they want to come back for more now that it's 15 years later? That’s just not right and I’m fighting that nonsense.”
MC Hammer
What I wonder is why anyone would care to put out false information as was done here. I can personally say that Hammer's the kind of person who helps people and is generous, at times to a fault.
