[PHOTO] NOTICE OF FEDERAL TAX LIEN ISSUED AGAINST EMMANUEL D. PACQUIAO

By Ben Thompson | December 12, 2013

Earlier this week, TMZ confirmed a FightHype.com report stating that multi-division world champion Manny Pacquiao owed the Internal Revenue Service upwards of $18 million in back taxes. According to TMZ, they had obtained "official documents" proving that Pacquiao failed to pay taxes from 2006 to 2010 in the amount of $18,313,668.79. FightHype.com has also received a copy of those official documents. Although Pacquiao has officially gone on record saying that the TMZ report is a lie and simply the work of people out to destroy his name, the following Notice of Federal Tax Lien [see below] that was prepared on November 22, 2013 and filed with the Official Records Recorder's Office in Los Angeles, California, says otherwise.

The notice, which names Emmanuel D. Pacquiao as the taxpayer, states:

"As provided by sections 6321, 6322, and 6323 of the Internal Revenue Code, we are giving a notice that taxes (including interest and penalties) have been assessed against the following named taxpayer. We have made a demand for payment of this liability, but it remains unpaid. Therefore, there is a lien in favor of the United States on all property and rights to property belonging to this taxpayer for the amount of these taxes, and additional penalites, interest, and costs that may accrue."

As reported by TMZ and verified by this document, the yearly breakdown of the back taxes owed from 2006 through 2010 is as follows:

2006 - $1,160,324.30
2007 - $2,035,992.50
2008 - $2,862,437.11
2009 - $8,022,915.87
2010 - $4,231,999.01

For those that are unaware, according to the official website of the Internal Revenue Service, a tax lien is described as follows:

A federal tax lien is the government's legal claim against your property when you neglect or fail to pay a tax debt. The lien protects the government's interest in all your property, including real estate, personal property and financial assets. A federal tax lien exists after the IRS:

Assesses your liability;

Sends you a bill that explains how much you owe (Notice and Demand for Payment); and

You neglect or refuse to fully pay the debt in time.

The IRS files a public document, the Notice of Federal Tax Lien, to alert creditors that the government has a legal right to your property.

A lien is not a levy. A lien secures the government's interest in your property when you don't pay your tax debt. A levy actually takes the property to pay the tax debt. If you don't pay or make arrangements to settle your tax debt, the IRS can levy, seize and sell any type of real or personal property that you own or have an interest in.

Since news broke of Pacquiao's tax issues in the United States, his adviser, Michael Koncz, has downplayed the seriousness of the matter, telling reporters in the Philippines that "everything is fine" and that they have been discussing the issue with the IRS for the past 3 years. That being said, those discussions must not have gone too well if the IRS felt the need to file the Notice of Federal Tax Lien. According to sources, the IRS also recently placed a levy on bank accounts in Manny Pacquiao's name, which would lead one to believe that over the course of those 3 years of discussions, no arrangements were ever made to settle Pacquiao's tax debt. While we're confident that some type of agreement will eventually be reached, it should be interesting to see the fallout from this matter once it's discovered what went wrong and who exactly is to blame.