We’ve been hearing for years that Tori Spelling has money problems, particularly because she “only” inherited about $800,000 when her father, prolific TV executive Aaron Spelling, died in 2006. After her dad passed, Tori didn’t curb her shopping or spending, she continued accumulating things she didn’t need and living a champagne lifestyle on a prosecco budget. For instance her mom, Candy Spelling, who inherited the bulk of Aaron’s estate, claims to pay all of Tori’s essential bills but Tori was sued by American Express earlier this year for nonpayment of a $38k debt. Tori moved into a cheaper rental home with her family in February which was still $7,500 a month and then proceeded to spend at least a month in Europe. So is it any surprise that Tori and her husband, Dean McDermott, owe 259,000 to the state of California in back taxes?
Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott have been hounded by bill collectors, and the big dog on the block is now the State of California.
Tori and Dean were hit with a tax lien for $259,108.23 for unpaid state taxes from 2014.
The lien would usually mean that their home could be on the hook, but Tori and Dean are renters so doesn’t look like they have to worry about the roof over their heads.
The silver lining … it means they made a lot of money.
I guess I’m surprised they made enough money to owe that much. The highest tax rate in California is 13.3%. Assuming they paid no taxes to the state in 2014, that means that they made almost $2 million $3 million (Update: see LA’s comment below) that year. You know Tori has blown through it already.
It also amuses me when people who owe massive amounts of money continue to flaunt their lifestyle on open social media. Tori does this on Instagram. She regularly throws parties for her kids, complete with intricate cakes, and she recently had a viewing party for her Lifetime TV show, Mother May I Sleep with Danger. (The James Franco reboot with Vampires.) Some of Tori’s parties are at least partially sponsored, but like her trip to Europe I would guess that her expenses outweigh her paid gigs. It’s a good thing that her dad didn’t leave her more money, because she probably would have wasted it years ago. Tori has known for years that she has a problem with money but she’s blamed it on her luxurious upbringing, writing “It’s not my fault I’m an uptown girl stuck in a midtown life. I was raised in opulence. My standards are ridiculously high. We can’t afford that lifestyle, but when you grow up silver spoon it’s hard to go plastic.” I guess not paying her taxes isn’t her fault either.
I will give her credit for one thing. She’s wearing shoes from a few seasons ago.
maybe Emily Goodhand could loan her some money
It’s interesting because people assumed that Dean was using Tori for money. I think Tori has a legit problem. I have friends that were raised with money and for many of them it is hard for them to separate their parents wealth from what they themselves have. And many people spend more the less money they have. They can’t not keep up with that fake life style. We have seen it a lot since the Reality Show Craze has begun. We see these people spending so much money. Vacations. Over priced clothes and cars. Then when the shows ends they are broke. A lot of the flash is just that flash. Nothing else behind it.
Allow me to let loose my inner MBA nerd…She probably made closer to 3 mil. Tax rates are marginal- meaning you dont pay 13% on the full income. You only start paying 13% after $526,000. Plus exemptions that she took from being married with kids, expenses she could write off etc.
Oh thank you I will fix that, appreciate it!
Of course! Happy to help. Taxes are so freaking complicated (I didn’t even get into capital gains…) it’s super hard to estimate someone’s income based on their tax bill. I could be way off as well. If someone on here is an accountant they could do a better job guesstimating.
I’m not sure how liens work, but a significant portion of that could be penalties. I know from when I screwed up filing deadlines when I was briefly paying nanny taxes that the penalties can often be more than what you actually owe (but in my case just talking hundreds of dollars, not thousands.)
Will she have to spend time in jail like Martha Stwart? Wesley Snipes? Lauren Hill?
Oh man I’m always defending poor old Tori on this site and I maintain my prerogative to do so.
But seriously this chick grew up in Hollyweird with no expense spared….Daddy’s girl, pampered and cosseted. I, on the other hand grew up in a single parent family without a brass razoo and, as a result, am extremely enterprising. I cook with dried pulses, shop at thrift stores and walk everywhere.
But what if I grew up like Tori? I’d be about as useless as tits on a bull he he
Anyhoo my point is this poor woman always strikes me as totally lost PLUS she is so unfortunate looking and, in such an image obsessed place as la la land, that must be very very hard.
*ducks for cover*
Do you realize that you just gave the affluenza defense?
If Tori starts assualting, injuring or killing people and uses the fact that she was raised not to have consequences and gets off, then, yeah, it is the affluenza defense. She lives in a bubble and Snowpea is on to something.
Right. She realizes she doesn’t have the money to buy the things she does, she just goes ahead anyway. I believe she thinks someone will take care of it and she’s right. Her mother probably eventually does.
She doesn’t care the example she is setting for her own children. Only. They aren’t going to have a mother to rescue them. I truly find her disgusting.
What Snowpea is saying is that because Tori grew up rich, she shouldn’t have to face the consequences of her actions. I don’t agree with that.
And in practical terms, Tori was cut off from her parents something like a decade ago, and still can’t accept the consequences for her own bad choices. She’s made a lot of money over the years – 90210, tv movies, tv series, books, reality shows, and any additional funds her parents gifted her. Her father gave her the opportunity to make her own money, but she squandered it and still demands more.
I feel for her too, but also wish she would make better choices
Tori is a grown a$$ women with 4 kids not a child. Her growing up in Hollywood means nothing because at the end of the day and as many financial issues she had over the years she would learn how to handle her finances.
Fact is she doesn’t want to she wants to have her cake and eat it to. While blaming other people or her mom so she can clean up her mess. There is no poor Tori the only victim are her kids who are used a accessories to pay for her lifestyle.
Funny how people like you always use that excuse and yet Tori has a brother who grow up on the same situation and yet he seems to doing better money wise.
Tori also had money of her own. She worked consistently for years, from 90210 to lifetime movies to books to reality tv – and that’s what we know of! That’s not accounting for any trusts or gifts or anything like that. That would have added up, but she spent it all.
And of course, don’t forget why Tori was cut off in the first place.
Tori has said that she grew up rich and didn’t know how to be poor.
Living and working in LA, I’ve known several grown children of Hollywood executives/power brokers, who grew up in monstrous Beverly Hills mansions, like Tori Spelling, and always having the best of everything, and they’re generally not bad with money. The worst I can say of my experience with Spelling types is that one or two of them are fairly lazy, because they inherited enough money that they don’t need to work and so don’t have much ambition. But they’re not irresponsible with their money like Tori is.
Ok while you have a point that she would have had a difficult time when this first happened because of her lifestyle growing up. She wasn’t raised with those skills, that being said people are resilient and learn. This isn’t new and she was left $800k so she had a lot of money and made good money so she could have had a real nice lifestyle. She could live like she was but she could have adjusted.
She didn’t try she whined and complained, and people adjust to losing money they make the necessary changes that are required this happens all the time. People go through hard times and they change to adjust.
No excuse at this point- she just thinks she is exempt.
To all those slamming Snowpea…I get it but….I think what Snowpea is aluding to is that Tori was raised by a dad who indulged her, a mom who was worse than she is but married the enabler who left her with more money than GOD would need and left it to her. Dad did not forsee his early demise. Suddenly mom is given the power to deal with the flaws in dad’s enabling and now tries to make daughter curtail the errors of moms ways. Daughter does not get it and mom continues to make sure that a roof, food and education is provided to grandkids … the circle continues just with a smaller budget and some minor (tax debt) consequences.
Disagreeing with her isn’t slamming her.
And Aaron Spelling didn’t have an early demise – he died at age 83 after a long illness. He knew exactly what he was doing with Tori, and strongly disagreed with the life choices she’d made. None of this was a shock to her.
It always blows my mind, when I hear that these celebs don’t pay their taxes. They make millions of dollars a year. I make waaaaaaaay less then they do, but I always pay my taxes!!! I’m sure Tori has some jewelry or paintings or something she could sell to help pay…
She does from what the people on here who watch her show have said that she has a lot of storages units full of stuff she can sell, but she doesn’t want to.
The government can take control of those units and sell everything off to get their money. The IRS did that to Willie Nelson years ago. They literally went to his house and took everything, even the rings off his fingers. It wasn’t enough so Willie recorded an album to pay off the rest of the debt (the IRS album).
I know. How hard is it to make an appointment and keep it? And if it’s having the money at the time taxes are due, the simple solution is sock away a shaving of your income every month so there is no dire emergency come April.
She is still in denial. This goes beyond just having been raised in an affluent family and being spoiled. Her situation over the past two decades is more about instant gratification and addiction. I’m willing to bet there are things in her home – clothing, purses, make-up, etc. that still have the tags on them and have never been used because it’s not having them that she needs or wants so much as it is buying them. It’s an adrenaline rush for some people. Why didn’t her dad set her up with a finance service to manage her spending. She is someone who can’t be trusted with money. Even though she is an adult, it would be in her and her family’s best interest if she were given an allowance.
When you make over a certain amount the IRS sets up an account for you and you *have* to pay into it. It’s called an estimated tax assessment and it’s quarterly. It’s basically how you have withholding on irregular income, like contract pay, which is how actors get paid. I do not understand how she doesn’t seem to have an ETA (they have state-level ETAs, too).
Only 13% income tax at the highest bracket?! I pay almost 30% on about half my salary (20% on the rest of it) and I make 70k!
I need to move to California, apparently.
These are state taxes, not federal.
That makes a lot more sense. I was wondering how it was possible to only pay that much in taxes and still have a functioning economy.
If she owes that much in state taxes, how much does she owe in federal?
State of California is really bad about not taking enough taxes out when you get paid. I’ve gotten refunds from federal but had to pay state taxes.
oh no…what did she do to her face this time? Her face looks even weirder than before.
I always feel so torn when it comes to this girl. Her parents/dad left her up sh*ts creek without a paddle. But on the other hand, she was given an opportunity to sink or swim and she chose to tread water and slowly drown in debt. If she had gotten financially smart she could have built a whole empire on teaching kids of upper class parents how to take what they were given and maximize it for themselves.
But the thing is, if she was still married to Charlie this would not be happening. Aaron was pissed about the affair and cut her and Dean off the best way he knew how. He saw Dean for what he truly was.
I think he left about the same to her brother, though. I don’t think it was punishment. He just wanted to leave the bulk of it to his wife and life-partner, and felt his kids had many other options to make money. He had put Tori on the payroll in 90210 long ago, that should have provided her with plenty of money.
It seems her brother adapted well to being cut off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNhgV9wCurk
Jwoolman…. was just thinking based on what you said about her dad putting her on 90210…. Maybe someone could shed some light on this point.. if she was added to the show and acted on the show, wouldn’t she then become a member of the SAG union? Therefore, wouldn’t she have had years accumulated in said union, therefore, she is covered with healthcare benefits, etc.. where she could claim disability and qualify for some type of disability payment? I’m not sure how it works but I do know a family member who was/is a member of the SAG and now on disability and qualifies for pretty good benefits from their time employed. Maybe Tori should take advantage of her benefits and get a good shrink so she can ‘adapt’ to the life of a non-1% person. But even with that, her mom pays 99% of her lifestyle if she is paying their rent, food, expenses for the sake of her grandkids… I wish I had such problems as poor Tori.. doesn’t hold her back from all the plastic surgery, hair extensions and hair dye ‘go Rose’ BS.. sorry she is just pathetic and beyond irresponsible.
800,000 isn’t being left up the creek without a paddle.
She’s got a hoarding and a money management problem, and giving her more money isn’t going to help that, not until she admits she’s got problems and learns to deal with them.
She’s not a bad person, but I don’t feel sorry for her.
Seems like she is no different than the tons of lottery winners we’ve read about that were rolling in their winnings and then lost it all and now worse off than before they hit the lottery.
I wonder if these former wealthy lottery winners are getting as many breaks and forgiveness as poor Tori gets.. irregardless of whether she is a bad person, I’m sure none of them are bad people either. I totally agree and don’t feel sorry for her.
But at what point do her excuses run out?
By the time of his death, even Aaron was pretty fed up with the way Tori was spending and living her life. She’s at thus point because she made a lot of bad choices – the straw that broke the camel’s back was when she got together with Dean and had her couples therapist break up with her husband for after, after just a year of marriage (after an insane million dollar wedding, no less) and then accused her mom of sleeping with her tennis instructor.
And of course, as I mentioned above, Tori made a lot of money over the years. She wasn’t left up a creek.
Again, my experience with kids who grow up really privileged, getting cut out of the will (or left *way* less than expected) is not the first step. It comes after the parent(s) has tried many other things to impress responsibility upon their child. As others have pointed out, Aaron Spelling was reportedly upset that Tori left her first husband for Dean, and that started all this off. Who knows exactly what was going on behind closed doors, but I doubt cutting Tori’s inheritance was the first thing Aaron tried.
Here’s what I’ll give her credit for: it looks like she’s put on some weight and she looks healthy!
She is going to continue to be this way until her mom cuts her off completely and/or the IRS comes in and liquidates everything she owns. She is a hoarder and has storage units all over the place. She needs a good dose of reality. Yes, she grew up wealthy, but that’s over with now. Time to step into the real world honey.
Tori, I wouldn’t exactly call your living situation now “plastic spoon.”
Tori has had years to adapt, and she refuses to do so, even acknowledging the problem and using it as a defense because of how she grew up. Stop the self-justification already. Time to start adulting.
“Champagne lifestyle on a prosecco budget”
I’m loving that analogy ALL DAY
She has mental health issues for sure, also she just needs to grow up.
The girl put on some weight! She doesnt look so strange any more!
I’m sorry but Tori is the biggest grifter. I don’t care if your parents are billionaires, they shouldn’t be paying a grown adults bills! Get a job with a steady income and live within your means like the rest of us.
” living a champagne lifestyle on a prosecco budget”
<3
I grew up in a very wealthy small town. I, luckily, was one of the less crazy wealthy ones(middle class with a stay at home mom). I say lucky because all those kids who grew up so spoiled and never taught to value a dollar. Almost all of them are busted broke because they don’t have mommy and daddy’s money anymore! They didn’t value money or college because they had everything. They peeked in high school. It’s really difficult for me to feel bad for people like Tori. It’s very simple math. If you make 300k a year, save more than 50% and spend the rest on life. Live below your means incase you lose your job. It can so easily be done but people think they have to spend every dollar they make(and dollars they don’t make) to feel special. I’m so grateful my parents taught me to respect money. I was taught from birth to save money and to see how rewarding that can be. I guess I do feel bad for them. Their parents failed them by not teaching them to respect money.
If Wesley Snipes went to jail for not paying taxes, when in the hell is miss Tori – entitled – Spelling going to jail?
Her mother pays her rent and all expenses related to her children, yet this woman still is past due on taxes. I say throw her ass and her pathetic excuse of a husband’s ass in jail and let her mother take care of her children.
He did not pay Federal taxes. IRS does not mess around.
I hope they don’t mess around with Tori and her loser husband either. My assumption is if neither paid CA taxes, they sure as hell didn’t pay federal taxes either.
It took forever for Snipes to actually be sentenced to jail, though.
I am an only child and the daughter of an only child. I have a trust fund and upon my dad’s death, I will inherit 90% of his estate (a couple million). I went to private school and my college and grad school was paid for. I didn’t have a job until I was 21. I just got a new car from the trust fund this year. I have been bemoaned by some of my friends that I live too cheaply. I don’t go out to fancy restaurants and I don’t live enough(I get a stipend from the trust fund now). I won’t have any money if I lived like they expect me to live. My parents raised me to be frugal. I buy 95% of my clothes on sale. I eat a lot of cheaper ethnic food rather than at some 5 star restaurant. I always came from money, but I know you can blow through it very quickly. Tori’s problem is she probably was never ever taught this very valuable lesson when you do come from money. If it were up to my friends, they’d blow through my money in a few years and then be broke. No thank you. That is my retirement money. The other problem is she lives in LA with 4 kids. 4 kids are pricey in anywhere America, but in LA?? private schools, clothes etc. not to mention Tori’s designer clothes and trips etc. She needs a financial advisor stat.
Her mom pays the kids way and Tori has some mental health issues, hoarding for starters
Aw, I have a soft spot for Tori. I think she hustles to make money, but I think she spends it as fast as she makes it as well. I’m the same way lol. Just last night, I caught a bit of an episode of Cabin Fever. I’d never seen it before. The kids were really happy. I often wondered in their photos if they were unhappy as they don’t seem to smile much. But they seemed very happy and very comfortable with both Tori and Dean. Not sure why that made me glad, but it did!
I would have assumed that celebs have accountants to sort out tax matters etc. obviously if she had spent it all there is not much the accountant can do…
My plan for when my lotto numbers come up to to hire someone to work all that shiz out for me and tell me how much I can spend! I am often surprised that others don’t do the same/ heed expert advice!
I can see Candy Spelling leaving her children a token amount, like Aaron did. The rest of her estate will be left to the grandchildren but left in trust so there is no way they can blow through it. Tori better not be hoping on getting a windfall from her mother
She will challenge any will that does that. While there is still one spouse alive the courts will favour the spouse, but if Candy tries to divert it all to the grandchildren in trusts, the children who are alive will be in a position to alter that. And knowing she has a brother, if there is a situation where he gets money directly and she does not, again that makes it look vindictive and easier for her to challenge the will.
So what should Candy do?
I think spending like that is her way to self-soothe her anxieties over not being able to keep spending like that. Blowing the money is her big “NOOOOOOO!!” to reality.