Just as "Real Housewives of New Jersey" stars Joe and Teresa Giudice squared away the foreclosure threat on their Montville Township mansion, the Internal Revenue Service has slapped the couple with a $551,563 tax lien, according to documents obtained by NJ Advance Media.
The tax lien, filed with the Morris County Clerk on Oct. 21 in both Joe and Teresa's names, reveals unpaid tax bills for nine years spanning 2000 to 2013. These include the years for which Joe Giudice was previously charged for failing to file his taxes as part of a 41-count indictment in 2013.
This history here is knotty: In 2013, the federal government charged Joe with failure to pay his taxes on nearly $1 million of income between 2004 and 2008. (Teresa, who is currently serving a 15-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn., did not face tax charges.)
As part of his plea bargain with the U.S. Attorney, Joe pleaded guilty to one count of failing to make a tax return and was sentenced to 12 months in prison, to run concurrently with his 41-month sentence for bankruptcy fraud and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. He reports to the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix early next year to serve his sentence, after which he faces the possibility of deportation to his native Italy.
The new revelation underscores the couple's continued financial woes, despite the lifting of the threat of foreclosure.
The tax lien was filed the day before the Community Bank of Bergen County gave notice that it was ending its foreclosure proceedings on the couple's Indian Lane showplace. That notice indicated the couple had made good on their missed payments. According to the bank's original complaint, the Giudices stopped paying their $10,679 monthly note in December 2014.
The couple's attorney James Leonard told NJ Advance Media last week that the Giudices "are looking forward to putting the past behind them and starting fresh," but could not comment immediately on the new tax lien.
Though Teresa has been in prison since January, she has inked a deal for a tell-all memoir that is set to be released four days after her prison sentence formally ends in February. Bravo also recently aired a three-part "Real Housewives" special called "Teresa Checks In," for which the family was presumably paid, and there have been reports that Bravo is casting new faces to join the Giudices in an expected seventh season of "RHONJ."
According to an agreement with the U.S. Attorney, Teresa will allow the government to garnish 25 percent of her wages from Bravo to help pay the $414,588 in restitution to Wells Fargo. The couple's lawyer James Leonard said on "Teresa Checks In" that the couple has been regularly paying down the restitution, but the accounting of the debt is not public record.
A lien, which secures the U.S. government's interest in a taxpayer's property, is issued only after the IRS has sent the taxpayer a notice of what he or she owes along with a demand for payment, and the bill remains unpaid.
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