Rapper Lil' Kim Settles Massive 6-Figure Tax Lien Six Years After Bankruptcy Filing

Rapper Lil' Kim's card did not decline as she settled off a six-figure debt to the United States federal government.

The New York born rapper has now paid off a substantial federal tax lien from the Internal Revenue Service filed against her back in May.

The recent tax lien is not Lil' Kim's (real name Kimberly Denise Jones) first rodeo with the federal government over her failure to pay her tax bills for several years.

The 49-year-old rapper reportedly owed the United States government $150,775 in taxes for 2022. The lien she just settled came two years after the Internal Revenue Service released multiple separate liens against her amounting to $1 million.

According to the IRS, the rap icon failed to pay her tax bill for several years, including $232,000 in 2003, $58,000 in 2005, $188,000 in 2006, $124,000 in 2007, $397,148 in 2008, and $211,000 in 2016.

A separate lien of about $126,000 in taxes owed between 2010-2013 was also released by the IRS in 2022. As of 2012, the female MC was already $1 million in federal tax debt.

Lil' Kim decided to hire a professional attorney to handle the debt issue, and according to her rep in a statement to In Touch, she "along with her team of legal experts, are working cooperatively and diligently with the IRS and federal tax authorities" to resolve the situation amicably.

Lil' Kim's tax debt was not the only financial woe she had to deal with. Last year, a landscaper who reportedly worked on a landscaping project in her home dragged her to court over an unpaid balance.

The man, identified as Jerry Lafontant, filed the civil lawsuit in 2023 and claimed to have completed a landscaping project that included custom columns/pillars, lights, and a fence installation.

He added that the "remaining balance of the landscaping project and three clean-up landscaping services total in the amount of $26,650."

Lafontant claimed that the rapper refused to pay up and accused him and his workers of stealing items from her home. However, the case was dismissed in May as the landscape expert refused to serve the actress papers or show up for the rest of the hearing.

Lil' Kim also famously announced that she was bankrupt, noting that her liabilities of $4,084,841.60 were more than her assets, calculated to be worth $2,573,300.

She declared that her assets included her New Jersey home, estimated at $2 million, a 2005 Bentley, a 2000 Mercedes Benz, various household furniture, $25,000 worth of jewelry, and other expensive small items.

The rapper noted that a large part of her debt was related to the seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom, 6,026-square-foot home.

Lil' Kim stated that she owed $2 million on the pad, $15 million to the IRS, and over $300,000 in state taxes. She added that she had borrowed $25,000 from her friend, rapper Missy Elliot.

However, she took a complete U-turn and asked the court to dismiss her bankruptcy claims later, stating that she worked out a loan modification with the bank to avoid foreclosure on her home.

Lil' Kim explained that the initial purpose of the bankruptcy was to save the home, and now that her finances were in order, she no longer needed the court's help.

The judge granted the rapper's request and closed the bankruptcy case without discharging her debt.

Shortly after her bankruptcy case was laid to rest, the rapper was hit with another federal lien claiming she owed nearly $60,000 in back taxes.

The Blast gathered from court documents that the Internal Revenue Service filed a federal tax lien against her on December 3, 2019. The document accused her of owing $58,227.40 from a 2005 tax bill.

The lien was filed against her Alpine, New Jersey mansion. IRS warned that the property and her assets would be seized if the debt was not paid in full and on time.