The tax troubles just keep building up for Leah Messer.
The Teen Mom star—who has been in considerable tax debt since at least 2020— was hit with two more tax liens last year, adding to the heap of federal and state taxes she has that remain unpaid.
The Sun broke the news that Leah was hit in September with a new state tax lien for $32,913. Just two months prior, the mom of three received a federal tax lien in the amount of $32,646.
As The Ashley previously reported, 2024 was a particularly rough year, tax-wise, for Leah, as she received a huge federal tax lien in February 2024 for a whopping $163,804, as well as a state lien that same month for $31,349. Leah also owes taxes for the 2023 tax year ($31,349 to the state and $290,297 to the federal government.)
All of those liens– combined with an unpaid state lien from 2020 in the amount of $9,238 and a federal lien from 2019 for $123,841— brings Leah’s tab with Uncle Sam to an eye-popping $715,437!
The Sun confirmed that all of those liens remain unpaid as of press time.
Although Leah declined to give a comment to The Sun about her new tax bills from Uncle Sam, she did open up about her enormous tax debt back in 2023. Leah stated 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 then points to bad advice from various accountants as the main reason she got to be so in debt.
“I have worked with many different accountants over the years,” Leah said in June 2023. “At first, I was filing and paying more than I was making and then I was paying people that had me stall while ‘they handled the tax situation. Apparently, it’s a long process. Then in 2020, the IRS was backed up like the entire world due to COVID.”
Leah also stated that she had no help figuring out how to handle the large amount of money she was making from appearing on ‘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…When you know better, DO better. This will be rectified sooner than later!”
As The Ashley has previously reported, the ‘Teen Mom’ girls are all “independent contractors” and therefore have no taxes automatically taken out of their checks like W-2 employees.
Luckily for Leah, though, she was recently hired by a new real estate firm. The Sun reported on Friday that Leah is now employed by the West Virginia real estate agency Property Elite, LLC, according to her license. The site reports that Leah sold her first home with the agency in August.
Leah is certainly not the first girl from the franchise to find themselves swimming in tax debt. Maci Bookout and her husband Taylor McKinney were hit with massive tax liens last year. In June, Maci and Taylor were jointly hit with a $351,699 federal tax lien. Just one month earlier, the couple received a separate federal tax lien for $86,620. These liens were added to the heap of tax money Maci and Taylor already owed.
As The Ashley previously reported, Maci and Taylor had a $105,346 federal tax lien filed against them in February 2024, along with a $49,383 federal lien filed against only Maci. In 2023, Maci and Taylor were hit with a $143,413 federal tax lien in a different county in Tennessee, the state that they reside in.
Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra paid off their massive $856,800 tax debt in January 2023, after being hit with multiple tax liens over a period of several years.
RELATED STORY: ‘Teen Mom’ Stars Maci Bookout & Taylor McKinney Receive An Additional $350,000 Federal Tax Lien Added to Their Already Steep Tax Debt
(Photos: MTV)
16 Responses
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW SHE EVEN THINKS SHE CAN POSSIBLE GET OUT FROM UNDER THIS. AND WHY IS WV ALLOWING HER TO SELL REAL ESTATE. THOUGHT THEIR LAWS WOULD NOT ALLOW THIS. WHEN THIS SHOW GOES AWAY, SO WILL THESE GIRLS THAT ARE STILL ON THIS SHOW. NICE TO SEE THAT 2 OF THEM MADE SOMETHING OUT OF THEIRSELVES…..
Perfect example of someone that has money and is still considered trash
I know one thing I would’ve never have bought a big nice house like she has FIO all that money in taxes the IRS needs to come in and take all that stuff away from her and even put her in jail. She can’t follow the rules like she’s supposed to and pay your damn taxes.
I do my taxes for my household. I’m no accountant but when the checks come in I am like “bitch put a third away” and we don’t even know it exists.
After 16 years and hundreds of thousands in leins over 5+ years, you know better. You cannot blame your employer or your dumbass accountants.
Turbotax would do you better.
Plus none of her tax liens are from when she was 16! I could understand if they were, but she was much older & should understand that taxes have to be paid.
Why MTV never helped these girls from the get-go with money managers is beyond me. Plus I can imagine their families and friends hanging around with their hands out didn’t help. I just feel like MTV could have done more to help them when they were younger by helping them with reputable money managers and accountants and whatnot.
My guess is that since they were considered Independent Contractors, MTV didn’t want to exert any “control” over any of the cast. Had they done that, it wouldn’t have taken long for the cast to start claiming that they were employed by MTV/Viacom so they could get benefits such as insurance. I’d be willing to bet that each girl had their own attorney review their contracts as they went along. It just seems like they didn’t follow the right advice. Leah & the others will be digging out of that tax hole for years, and the interest just keeps adding up. Common sense should have kicked in st some point.
Maybe you could have blamed this on MTV 10 years ago, when the women were barely adults. But, this is no longer MTV’s fault or problem. These women are in their 30s and most of their tax issues started when they were full-fledged adults.
“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”
Ok but now you aren’t 16. You are 32. She also has had a net worth of 1 million and live in a 6000 sq ft home that she bought for $500,000. Cry me a river and pay your taxes like everyone else does. It’s ridiculous at this point. And if you are financially struggling (and I don’t think she is) perhaps downgrade your housing the way most single mothers have to. She would still have the ability to provide a more luxurious house at a reasonable price than most single mom’s do.
Why would the government let her sponsor her sisters baby daddy, with her owing this amount of money?
Bc the rule of the law is no more.
How long til the Only Fans starts?
Hopefully not. I have a soft spot for Leah – she seems kinder than the other ladies on the show. She sure is in a hole and even bankruptcy will not expunge the tax liens. She was taken advantage of by many in her life – not sure I buy that an accountant gave her the wrong advice, but it’s possible. The bigger problem seemed to be her mooch family, particularly her sister and others who came into her life like that grifter Jaylan. He probably left major financial damage in his wake. She didn’t have a savvy parent like Chelsea did to give her guidance. Even seems like ol’ Roxy had enough financial wisdom to keep Briana from getting in over her head.
That made me sad 😔
The irs will always get their money. I would be so terrified.
After 15-16 years, these girls should know how to pay their taxes. I can understand for the first few years being an independent contractor and being young, but come on. I also think Leah’s family takes advantage of her which doesn’t help. But at this point, they should know with as much money they’re making how to pay taxes.