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3rd June 2024
10:16am BST
Michael Jackson’s three children are currently blocked from receiving funds from his trust until his estate settles an ongoing dispute with the American Internal Revenue Service.
Prince (27), Paris (26) and Bigi (22) are all primary beneficiaries of their father’s trust, along with Jackson’s mother Katherine, now 94-years-old.
According to People, a May 28 filing revealed that beneficiaries of the King of Pop’s estate will not receive distributions so long as the legal disputes continue.
The dispute began when the IRS audited the estate’s federal estate tax return and “issued a note of deficiency” claiming that the estate “undervalued its assets” and owed “an additional $700 million in taxes and penalties,” the filing states.
In 2021, the estate disputed those assessments and won in 2021 after a trial in tax court. Since then, however, the estate filed a motion for reconsideration regarding the court’s value of Mijac (Jackson’s music catalog owned by Sony music) that remains pending.
Therefore, the value of the estate for tax purposes has not been determined. Once it is, the IRS and the estate need to agree to the value of deduction before a final judgement can be entered. Only then will the amount owed to the offspring of the Billie Jean singer be clarified.
Until that gets figured out, attorneys representing the late icon’s family have requested that a portion of the estate “remain subject to administration”.
Unfortunately for the trio in their twenties, however, the executors under the will of the pop star rejected the request because they cannot “possibly determine what amount could be safely distributed at this time.”
Prince, born in 1997, is Jackson’s first child with ex-wife Debbie Rowe, 65. His godparents are Macaulay Culkin and Elizabeth Taylor.
The two then welcomed daughter Paris in 1998, who has established a music career for herself in recent years.
Jackson and Rowe divorced in 1999 and he was given full custody of the kids.
Bigi – also known as Blanket – was born via surrogate in 2002 as Prince Michael Jackson II. The identity of the biological mother has never been publicly revealed.
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