Tyler Perry is a well-known figure in Hollywood, and his rise from obscurity to fame is inspiring. He apparently lived in an abusive household as a child, but he didn’t let that stand in the way of his career. Perry eventually had to live in his automobile.
When his net worth hit $1 billion in 2020, Forbes formally declared him to be a billionaire. The 53-year-old, who has a pretax income of over $1.5 billion since 2005, joins the ranks of other billionaire business leaders including Oprah Winfrey, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and John de Mol, according to Forbes.
According to Forbes, the Madea franchise, his 133.5 (330 acres) Atlanta film studio, and his ownership of the BET+ streaming service account for the majority of his earnings. Perry faced obstacles along the way to success. The billionaire and well-known filmmaker recently spoke with attendees of the 2022 Earn Your Leisure Conference about his business struggles, including firing his whole accounting team for a catastrophic mistake.
Perry understood how important it was to make sure taxes had to adhere to a specific standard, despite the fact that he agrees that taxes are a grey area. “In business, it’s ok to make mistakes, but do learn. Don’t let it keep happening over and over again,” Perry noted, according to the dailycaller, before opening up about his accounting problem.
According to him, he commissioned an audit into his business which went on for three years, costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars. After the audit, he said, “we get to the end of the audit, and the IRS owed me $9 million — they owed me $9 million!”
He further noted that he was shocked that his accounts didn’t initially recognize the severity of the issue, adding that he had no choice but to fire them. “And all my accountants come running and say ‘Isn’t that great? Isn’t that great?’ And I say, ‘Hell no! How did you miss me paying $9 million?’”
“Everybody gone! I had to stop going to H&R block for my taxes at some point,” he joked.
