Phil ‘The Unibomber’ Laak recently had a bomb dropped on him when the state of California served a lien on his personal property for unpaid taxes. Laak owes $24,874 for state taxes that he didn’t pay in 2010 and 2011. Assuming Laak refuses to or can’t pay the taxes, he could lose some or all of his property.
Of course, this seems like a very unlikely scenario for a couple of different reasons. First off, the Internal Revenue Service has a program that allows people who owe less than $50,000 in taxes to pay off their debt over a six-year period. So this would give Laak plenty of time to settle his debt.
An even bigger reason we don’t see the WSOP champion sweating too much over this matter is his success on the felt. Over his 12-year poker career, Laak has earned $3,136,008 in poker tournaments. He’s especially heated up over the past five years, having made $1,731,497 during this span.
Even if Laak still struggles to pay back his taxes, it’s worth mentioning that he keeps very good company. He’s dated fellow WSOP champ and famed actress Jennifer Tilly for the past eight years. And his best friend is Antonio ‘The Magician’ Esfandiari, who’s the all-time leader in poker tournament winnings with $25,625,556.
The tax case of Phil Laak is somewhat reminiscent of what Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi went through back in 2010. Mizrachi was hit with a tax lien for $340,000. Unfortunately, in this case, Mizrachi wasn’t able to cover the big lien and he lost both his home and rental property to foreclosure.
Mizrachi explained that a few factors contributed to this problem, including bad accounting, renters not paying on time, and his own bad business dealings. Luckily for Mizrachi, he went on a tear shortly after the tax problems, earning over $4 million in 2010 alone. He’s since added almost $3.3 million in poker tournament winnings over the past three years.