The Purple One's Tax Blues

[Doktor Avalanche]

CHASKA, Minn. — Prince looks like a pauper in a list of delinquent taxpayers in Minnesota.

Carver County tax records show the musician's PRN Music Corp. owes more than $227,000 for 2009 taxes to the state and other government bodies. The county is southwest of Minneapolis.

PRN Music houses Prince's Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen. County records list several other properties under his full name, Prince R. Nelson, as delinquent.

County taxpayer services manager Laurie Engelen estimates PRN Music and Prince's other properties owe about $450,000 in taxes.

PRN and Prince's studios don't have listed phone numbers. A talent agency that has represented Prince didn't immediately respond to e-mail seeking comment.

The delinquency list was published last week in the Chaska Herald.

That sucks. I really admire this man's musical genius and it's a damn shame it's come to this.

[VinnyZ]

I'm trying to buy a house not too far from there.

Tough to get a mortgage these days.

[grixit]

If anyone could pull off a "Pass the Hat Tour" on short notice, it's Prince.

[Nikki]

That might be the least of his worries:

A Dublin judge ordered U.S. pop singer Prince to pay $2.95 million to Irish concert promoters Friday for canceling a 2008 concert at the last minute.

High Court Justice Peter Kelly said he was making the total damages public because Prince has yet to pay anything to Dublin promoters MCD Productions Ltd. in their confidential settlement reached Feb. 26.

Kelly ruled that Prince had committed to perform in Dublin's 82,300-seat Croke Park in June 2008, but withdrew without explanation just days beforehand, after 55,000 tickets were sold. The 51-year-old Prince did not testify at last month's hearing.

Kelly said Friday his order was specifically against Prince, not his agents from the William Morris agency, who were absolved of liability. Prince's lawyer Paul Sreenan consented to the order.

MCD lawyer Maurice Collins said he might seek to pursue Prince using a more powerful European Enforcement Order if the performer didn't pay up soon.

MCD, Ireland's biggest concert organizers, said it had paid Prince half of his demanded $3 million fee up front, another $950,000 to book Croke Park for the night, advertised the concert aggressively and refunded all 55,000 tickets.

During last month's court hearing, William Morris agent Marc Geiger testified that he rarely spoke to Prince directly and found him one of his toughest clients to understand or nail down.

Geiger said he told Prince of the fury that the singer was causing MCD owner Denis Desmond during a rare face-to-face meeting in Los Angeles on June 3, 2008. He quoted Prince as replying, "Tell the cat to chill. We will work something out."

[Duke2Earl]

Unfortunately, I find many of the truly gifted (and many that think they are gifted) are not, shall we say, cognoscent of the realities of life. Details such as paying bills, arriving on time, living up to contractual obligations, keeping one's word and the like seem to escape them, perhaps because they get away with it so much of the time.

[grixit]

Remember, the whole name thing started because he balked at fulfilling the standard first timer's contract with a big distributer. He called it slavery.

[Tax Man]

it took me forever to find his records in Carver County's website but when I searched under I finally found them.