Tyler Perry revealed he once fired his entire accounting team after learning the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) owed him $9 million in tax returns.
The filmmaker and philanthropist, who had been on the receiving end of an audit, shared the story at the 2022 Earn Your Leisure Conference, where he discussed his career journey and some of the challenges he’s learned from along the way.
Perry Says “Obsessed” IRS Agent Was Intent On Following His Money, Prompting An Audit
“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.”
In front of a live audience, Perry retold the time when a particular IRS agent became obsessed with what Perry was doing with his money.
Perry said the audit lasted for three years, costing him “hundreds of thousands of dollars in accounting.”
“So this audit went on for three years,” Perry said. “I’m spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in accounting with accountants for the audit and I am getting so mad and so frustrated.
We get to the end of the audit, and they, the IRS, owed me $9 million,” he shared.
Accountants Were Thrilled To Report Missing $9 Million Before Tyler Perry Fired Them
Perry went on to say that the team of accountants were thrilled to inform him that the IRS actually owed him $9 million, to which he responded by firing them for somehow missing such a massive amount of money.
“Everybody gone! I had to stop going to H&R block for my taxes at some point,” he joked with the conference’s audience, according to Finurah.
Perry added that he “learned in progress and it’s okay.”
Perry Calls Audit Learning Experience And Says He Moved Forward, Like He Always Does In Business
“Listen to me: In business, it’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay to learn. You have to learn, but don’t let it keep happening over and over again. That’s one thing about me. I’ll let you make a million mistakes, but you can’t do the same thing over and over again.”
He said “that’s how I run my business. Here’s the mistake. Let’s fix it; let’s move forward.” Perry added that had the IRS agent removed from the case and replaced with one of his superiors.
