Leah Messer continues to build a tax bill with Uncle Sam!
The Teen Mom star— who recently started working as a real estate agent — has been in debt to the state of West Virginia as well as the IRS for over a year now, but according to a new report by In Touch Weekly, Leah was just hit with two new liens last month.
The magazine states that one of the liens came courtesy of the state of West Virginia on February 26 for $31,349. Days earlier, Leah was hit with a lien from the federal government’s West Virginia jurisdiction in the amount of $196,804.
Unfortunately for the mom of three, these latest liens only add to the previous state and federal liens she received in 2023, which totaled $290,297. The outlet confirmed with the West Virginia County Clerk’s Office that the state and federal liens from last year are still listed as “active,” meaning Leah currently owes the government well over $500K.
The news of Leah’s mounting money woes comes less than a year after she told In Touch Weekly that she was working with “an amazing accountant and tax attorney” in order to get her finances in order.
“My hope in the future is to bring awareness and the same wisdom that I’ve gathered over the past year to my platform,” she claimed. “When you know better, DO better. This will be rectified sooner than later!”
During an interview with the magazine in June 2023, Leah explained how she got so far into tax debt, stating that she first got behind in paying her taxes after her divorce from Jeremy Calvert in 2015. That was the same year she went to rehab for drug addiction.
She pointed to bad advice from various accountants as the main reason she owes so much money in taxes. Leah also stated that she had no help figuring out how to handle the large amount of money she was making from appearing on 16 and Pregnant and ‘Teen Mom 2.’
“I didn’t grow up making the income that I do now, [and] I didn’t have the guidance that a girl at 16 should’ve had to responsibly handle money and make healthy financial planning choices,” Leah said, adding that she is educating her three daughters on how to get their finances in order. “I’m figuring this all out on my own and passing the advice to the next generation of women in my family as I learn.”
As The Ashley told you earlier this month, in addition to her gig on various ‘Teen Mom’ shows, Leah is now earning income by working as a real estate agent in West Virginia after earning her license in September 2023. (She had also been working as a server in a local restaurant.)
While she faced a setback shortly upon landing her first job as a realtor–- aka getting hired and quickly fired–- Leah went on to find employment with another agency months later and is now a realtor with eXp Realty in Huntington, West Virginia.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C352AhavO-x/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Along with her new position at eXp, Leah launched a swanky website last month to introduce herself to potential holler-home buyers and tout her real estate expertise.
” … My goal as a trusted REALTOR is to serve communities with unwavering integrity and respect,” her website states. “While striving for excellence in both my career and my family life, I find fulfillment in the balance of career ambition and motherhood. I look forward to learning more about you and fulfilling all of your real estate needs.”
Leah will also appear on ‘Teen Mom Family Reunion’ later this season. Season 3 of the spin-off is currently airing on MTV.
(Photos: MTV; Instagram)
27 Responses
Why do non of the teen moms know how to pay their damn taxes! Like surely by their age now they would have learnt that they need to do it. They aren’t teenagers anymore. Time to grow up and do adult things
They might not know how to pay taxes, but they sure know how to pay for vacations, houses and cars!
MTV should stop taking these girls on vacations for spin-offs and do a show where they just teach them basic life skills like paying taxes and living on a budget, then they force them to try to live in modest homes and hold down real jobs to pay the bills like they would have had to do if they hadn’t hit the lottery with MTV. I’d actually watch that one.
I’d tune in and it could be edumacational for the audience since most US high schools don’t teach personal finance but should. Especially where the schools aren’t well. Teen Mom has proven to teach the wrong lessons. Have a bunch of kids with different baby daddies and live in a nice house and drive a $70k monster SUV – yay!
Others noted below that Leah should cash in on her brand which she should have done, but with the show winding down, that ship might have sailed. She’s more likable than Kail or Janelle and they’re able to make money off social media. Although in Jenelle’s case it’s from OF.
Just last week there was a court ruling against the National Assn. of Realtors which will vastly alter the industry and might result in a major reduction of the number of agents in the industry. Newbies like Leah and Jade will likely be the first to go. Maybe Leah’s local fame will help her stay in the industry and make a go out of it or a savvy agent could team up with her to bring in clients and they can handle the harder parts of the job. I sure wouldn’t trust Leah handling my real estate transactions.
She’s not a bad person (unlike Kail and Janelle), just made some very bad choices and people like her sister and her man who keep popping out kids along with the grifter Jaylan have taken advantage of her. Probably many others in her life have also mooched off her which is why she’s broke. If she had to resort to OF then Corey Tyler would probably fight for full custody of the girlses (as well he should) so she shouldn’t go that route unless she wants to lose her kids.
Come on Leah, get your $h1t together and set and example for the girlses.
I put part of the blame on MTV for never providing these young ladies with financial planners.It seems like most of these moms have had tax debt problems.
I disagree. My job never taught me basic life skills. I taught myself these. Part of taking a self-employed job is tasking yourself with the responsibility of paying your own taxes. They have all made so much money, they could’ve handled reputable financial advisors to handle their income accordingly.
Does your boss provide you with a financial planner ? Mine doesn’t. And guess what, I pay my taxes.
My job does, in fact, have that resource..
She could sell that house.
No way she earns enough to even pay that mortgage.
She doesn’t need a half million dollar house when she has a half million dollar bill.
I bet she goes home after earning tips every night and relaxes in her sauna, thinking she deserves this.
Yikes! That’s a lot of money. If Leah can’t pay it, the best option is to call them and do a payment plan.
Do serving, real estate, and MTV to pay it off.
If she filed incorrect returns or didn’t file returns at all, good chance the liens are not all for money she owes…just the income reported to the federal and state tax agencies.
There is a chance she needs to or could amend her tax returns to take legit deductions to offset the income reported to IRS/State. An if she never filed, she can file a return to take her legit deductions to reduce amount owed and the lien amounts.
I wonder if the folks working with her are trying to negotiate offer and compromise.
I guess her waitressing job is making more sense. Sad that after 10+ years of making over 500k/year and with the show coming to a natural conclusion soon, she’s just never going to be able to pay that off.
Like Leah needs a social media manager, she could easily monetize her fan base.
I’ve always been surprised that she has never monetized her instagram like the others. She could easily make a lot of money on there.
I feel like Leah is lazy and while being an influencer in the grand scheme is a quite easy job, it requires self-motivation.
Just going to a restaurant while a physically demanding job doesn’t really require anything from you. You go for your shift, take orders and bring people’s food. Simple job, not easy, but pretty simple.
Social media requires you to find companies, post, edit, film, upload, plan, schedule brand deals, and write scripts. Even if she hires most of the jobs out, she needs to arrange it all,and schedule it, make plans. Leah is not a planner.
Its sad that she didn’t follow after Chelsea or Kail. Kail is messy and has a kid farm going on, but she makes bank from her social media and podcasts.
It seems though Corey has still kept his job that Leah made fun of him for having for years, even though he knew that this show wasn’t a career and he needed health insurance, especially for Ali. They look like they live a comfortable but not extravagant lifestyle. So the girles will be okay. And Jeremey has been working nonstop in the pipelines since Leah met him. So Addie will be okay.
They live in one of the poorest counties in the country, the average salary is like 30k/year, now but like 20k/year when Leah was making bank. What the hell did she do with all that money?
I have to pay my taxes, You have to pay. How the hell does she not have to pay? Sell the house your so called boyfriend gave you. Live within your means. Props for being a waitress, but that will never pay that tax bill.
Lol.
Yeah, I never said she shouldn’t pay her taxes, just that she’s never going to pay off that debt when she’s working as a waitress in one of the poorest counties in WV.
She should get into the sponcon, she has like 3 million followers. She could easily make 6 salary hocking shit like Kail and Chelsea do on their social media. I mean i f*king hate Jenelle and she’s making bank off of social media. Those videos of her crying about David, she’s getting paid for that.
The reason why it caught up to her is MTV pays people as 1099 workers, so they don’t do w-2 forms. Most people are w-2 employees. When they give your paycheck every two weeks, they have what’s been withheld for your taxes and then you file and either you owe a little bit more or they owe you a little bit more. But its not going to be like surprise you owe the government 6 figure amount.
But when your 1099, you need to save 30% of your income and then on tax day, you need to send them your tax forms with a check for ~30% of your income. Its not withheld. I still think its stupid she’s been making this kind of money for years, she should know better by now. Get an accountant. And federal and state taxes are filled separately. So you have to file them both yourself. SO maybe she was paying the federal taxes but not the state and it caught up to her. I don’t know, Leah isn’t the brightest bulb.
I’m just glad the girles fathers are financially solvent to take care of them if Leah isn’t able to because she spends her month on dumb things.
Oh and I forgot. Leah is sponsoring is BIL. So if he applied for any social safety programs for 10 years after he comes. She has to pay for them.
The point is that the people coming don’t become a burden on the system.
So if he got SNAPS, housing, Medicaid, she would have to pay that back to the government. So that could be why its so high.
I didn’t mean to direct that comment to you my friend
Yesss I so agree. Frankly, I’m amazed she passed her realtor’s exam, its a hard test most people have to take more than once.
Sell that place, do the spam stuff and get it together girl.
Also I will never understand why shes a waitress in west virginia. She doesn’t make much money doing that I’m sure. who knows. Did anyone ever hear why Jeremy and his girlfriend came in and harassed her at work?
Is there anyone in the franchise who DOES pay their taxes??
I don’t think I have heard anything about Chelsea. But I also feel like with a father who was a high earner as a dentist he probably had his accountant do her taxes for her.
She was I think the only teen mom who came from an upper middle family.
Does anyone know why she was fired by the first real estate firm? Does she still support her sister’s current husband?
I believe that when you sponsor someone coming to this country it is for 10 years. Beats the hell out of me how she qualified as a sponsor with that much debt.
I can’t say I know anything, but I always wondered if they found out about her affiliation with the Teen Mom franchise and her drug issue. I would think they would fully vet someone first, so I don’t know.
I hope she can figure this out, I have second hand anxiety by the amount she owes
me too jesus god. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
At least she doesn’t whore herself out on only fans like Duhnelle. Yet.