Alexis Stewart, Martha's daughter, suing CPA over tax return
Alexis Stewart, the daughter of world-famous Martha Stewart, is suing her accountant over a tax return that she said contained mistakes costing her hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A radio and TV host, Stewart, 43, filed a lawsuit earlier this month contending that CPA Michael Mirras, who she hired to do her 2002 tax return, miscalculated the amount she owed the IRS, according to the Washington Post.
In 2002, Stewart redeemed her interest in the Martha Stewart Family Limited Partnership, according to a New York Post article, and exchanged it for shares in Martha Stewart Omnimedia. It was the same year her mother was under investigation in an insider trading case.
The lawsuit says Mirras "was negligent, careless, violated his professional duties of due care and diligence to plaintiff, failed to exercise reasonable skill as an expert certified public accountant, and was guilty of professional malpractice by incorrectly calculating Ms. Stewart's capital gains," said the Post article.
The lawsuit says the error was caught in a 2006 IRS audit. Specifically, Stewart said, an IRS examiner found she owed $737,047 in taxes and $143,683 in interest.
"She says almost $295,000 in penalties was reduced to $110,000 by negotiation," the Washington Post reported, saying her lawsuit is asking for $334,000 from Mirras.
Stewart freely talks about many subjects on Sirius radio. A New York Magazine feature story said she has been relating every detail of her life on-air. Last year, Stewart generated a lot of buzz for before-and-after pictures of her breast-lift on her blog.
