Over the years, a lot of celebrities have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Film stars and cricketers have all got involved in tax-related infringements. Let?s take a look at a few of those and understand why it qualified for tax evasion:

Shah Rukh Khan?s ?gifted? palm villa:

Taking about celebrities, who better to start with than the King Khan himself? Shah Rukh Khan was served a notice by the Income Tax Department in January 2011 for receiving the Signature Villa on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The Bollywood star claims that the villa, valued at Rs 17.84 crore, was a gift from Nakheel Public Joint Stock Company in 2007 for endorsing the firm. But Nakheel recently revealed to the IT Department that the actor was not providing any professional service to the firm. The notice states that Nakheel has been using Khan?s name since 2004 to promote the Palm Jumeirah project. Khan was unable to provide any receipt for the endorsement. This is a case of tax evasion as Khan was providing inaccurate details regarding payment while also concealing a source of his income by claiming the villa to be a gift.

Sachin Tendulkar?s infamous Ferrari import tax debate:

In July 2002, Fiat presented Sachin Tendulkar with a Ferrari Modena 360 F1 for equaling Sir Donald Bradman?s record of 29 Test centuries. The batsman asked the Indian government to waive off the import tax on the car and the government granted the request. This decision was unexpectedly met with severe opposition as the amount waived off was Rs 15 crore and the general argument was that this amount could easily be afforded by the world?s highest earning sportsperson. There had been a precedent where former India batsman Sunil Gavaskar had to pay a substantial duty imposed on the Mercedes Benz he received from the Indian Cricket association in 1996. Tendulkar?s issue was further complicated by the fact that he was endorsing Fiat Palio, which was also manufactured by the same makers as Ferrari. This led to the case that the Ferrari was in fact an earning for the batsman. Eventually, Fiat paid the Rs 15 crores import tax to resolve the whole issue

Harbhajan Singh caught evading service tax:

Harbhajan Singh was served a notice by Commissionerate of Central Excise and Custom in December 2010 for evading service tax during IPL 2 and 3. The CEC notice includes the Mumbai Indians spinner?s role in advertisements, rental incomes and participation in the tournament. The amount that Harbhajan has been asked to pay as service tax is in excess of Rs 2.5 crores. His chartered accountant has been asked to furnish details of his income from the team and his earnings through IPL-related advertising. Another cricketer Yuvraj Singh has also been caught in a similar tax evasion case relating to IPL earnings.

Britney Spears?s company not paying taxes:

In April 2007, the California Franchise Tax Board charged Britney Online, one of popstar Britney Spears? companies for not paying taxes in excess of 23,000 USD. The FTB report claimed that 23,589.17 USD was delinquent from its 2004 tax year earnings. The report prompted a thorough inquiry into all of Britney?s business ventures and also her earnings from her songs and music videos. The American singer finally had to pay up all her outstanding taxes, as the other option was doing jail time.

Cars of Sunil Shetty, Sanjay Dutt seized for tax evasion:

Bollywood actor Sunil Shetty was also asked to pay 100 % tax plus a fine of 15 % for evading import duty on a Hummer imported from the USA in 2006. The Hummer, which would have cost him around Rs 80 lakhs after payment of tax, will now cost him in excess of Rs 1 crore. The car which was seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence was finally released after Shetty deposited Rs 72 lakh as provisional release bond, bank guarantee and differential duty against the car. In a similar incident, actor Sanjay Dutt was forced to surrender his Porsche to the DRI for failure to pay import duty on the vehicle in 2005.