Yo Gotti did not pay his property taxes for years due to a lack of information.
During an interview with podcast “Earn Your Leisure,” the rapper revealed he was unaware he had to pay back taxes to the government. He viewed taxes as a celebration as he recalled the gifts he would receive from his mother around tax season. He didn’t know these gifts were likely coming because she had received a tax refund.
“I grew up thinking, when you heard of taxes, my mama and ’em got tax money. That’s when we got new Jordans. We got new outfits… It was a celebration when it was tax time,” he said. “We was waiting on tax time. It was better than Christmas. So, I didn’t know… even in my early stages of getting money, I didn’t know we had to pay. I didn’t know because of a lack of information; they didn’t teach me that in school.”
“I was buying real estate early right, and I just happened to get a letter. They said like, ‘Yo, we’re gonna… seize your property if you don’t pay this,’ and I didn’t even know you had to pay property taxes on a house that you paid cash for,” he said. “At this time, bro, I got 10, 15 houses I done paid cash for that I had for four, five years that I’d never paid a property tax on because I didn’t know. So, it just so happened that I get a letter in the mail telling me that… they’re going to seize the properties if I don’t pay these property taxes… So, I hit my lawyer, they weren’t even a tax lawyer… he was criminal lawyer… So I hit him like, ‘Yo, let me, I ain’t seen these papers.’ and he sent me to a tax lawyer and a CPA… and I sat down with them, and they they pretty much put me on game.”
Following his experience, Yo Gotti is currently working to ensure other artists won’t face a similar fate. As the founder and CEO of record label Collective Music Group, he advises his artists to hire a certified public accountant (CPA) and provides additional advice around financial literacy.
“One of the things I do, we make sure that first time we give you a dollar, we give you money, make sure you’re doing this, and we even advise certain things, ‘Make sure you get you a CPA,’” he said. “I’m givin’ you the information, like, ‘Yo, you need this’ and ‘This why,’ and I’m giving them examples. ‘This is what happened to me. This what happens, so make sure this don’t happen to you.’”
