Nicolas Cage Selling Vegas Mansion to Cover Debt

2010 figure soars $32M from year before

(NEWSER) - Some 98,000 federal workers owed $1.03 billion in unpaid taxes at the end of the 2010 fiscal year. While that's fewer employees than in 2009, the amount of cash owed climbed by $32 million, the Washington Post reports. Defense Department workers owed the most, with more than 30,000 employees—including 4,600 civilian employees—in the red by $265 million, while 2% of active duty troops and 2% of reservists owed $339 million. More»

He had to visit 10 banks to do it

(NEWSER) - The city of Hartford got its most annoying tax payment ever yesterday, when a man showed up with a hand truck full of more than 30,000 pennies. Brian Kiros was furious over his $301.76 tax bill: He’d moved to Vermont a year and a half earlier but had forgotten to return his Connecticut license plates, meaning taxes kept piling up. “I'm like, if they are going to bother me like this, I'm going to bother them,” he tells WFSB . More»

Wait, isn't he broke?

(NEWSER) - Oh, Nicolas Cage…when will you learn? Your castle-buying habit already got you in massive debt, so you go out and purchase a pyramid? The good news: It’s not an actual pyramid, just a 9-foot-tall tomb shaped like one…which he won’t use until he’s one day buried in it, TMZ reports. Still not the most prudent of ideas, perhaps, but maybe he can keep his collection of shrunken heads in it until he needs it. More»

Making bundles of cash doesn't guarantee you won't evade

(NEWSER) - Not too many of us are celebrating Tax Day, but some celebrities are probably even less happy about it than you. The Frisky rounds up 10 who owe back taxes:

• Pamela Anderson: Perhaps Dancing With the Stars will help her pay some of the $493,144 she owes California.
• Wesley Snipes: He actually went to prison after failing to file for a few years and racking up $2.7 million in debt. He was released on a $1 million bond.

Even at a mere $10.4M, no one bit on 'bizarre' Bel-Air mansion

(NEWSER) - Nicolas Cage’s foreclosed Bel-Air mansion went up for auction yesterday, but apparently no one wanted a 6-bedroom, 9-bath compound with comic books covering the walls and a model train circling the ceilings. No one bid even the minimum $10.4 million, the Los Angeles Times reports, meaning that ownership reverted to one of six lenders. A real estate agent says the “fascinating and bizarre” property may not have appealed to many, calling the design “frat house bordello.” More»