Posted in: Comics | Tagged: irs, peter david

Peter David Asks For Help To Pay $88k In Back Taxes, Raises $40k In Two Days, Promises To Start Watching Walking Dead

Legendary comic book writer Peter David is in a bit of a jam. Well, worse than that. Desperate trouble, as he calls it. In a blog post on Friday, David wrote:

Many years ago I had a television series on the air called "Space Cases." And I made a lot of money that year. I mean a lot. And I had a ton of money sitting in my bank account ready to send to the IRS on April 15th. It was all good.

And then the day that I was going to send the check, I swung by the nearest ATM to withdraw some cash and was astounded to see that half the money in my account was gone. Why was it gone? Because my then wife withdrew it in order to pay for a divorce lawyer, which was how I found out my marriage was dissolving. So the money never went to the IRS because I had to use the remainder to hire my own attorney.

Over the years, I never managed to land another project that would pay me that much. I had lots of people make promises–I even did the work for some of them–and none ever came up with the money. Meanwhile I tried to make payment arrangements with the IRS but they didn't last, because throughout the year I'd send in the payments but then on April 15 I had no money to pay the income tax because I'd already sent them all my spare money.

Then they seemed to just forget about it. Which was great.

Except recently they now seem to have remembered. And they want all the money, plus penalty and interest, or they are going to financially destroy me.

How much? $88,000.

Yeah, that's a lot of money, and the IRS can be persistent. Just look at what happened to Wesley Snipes.

David asked fans to help out by paypalling him money or sending it by Pony Express:

Is it possible? Well, I have 5000 Facebook followers. If they each sent $10, that would get me halfway. I have over 13,000 Twitter followers. If they each sent $10, I'd be in the clear with money to pay any taxes due on the new income.

My Paypal account is padguy@aol.com. Don't use the donate button on this site; that will send the money to the Heroes Initiative.

Do you want to get something for the money? Fine: Send a check to my PO Box, PO Box 951, Bayport, NY 11705 along with books of mine and a SASE and I'll sign them and send them back. That's something, I guess.

He ended with:

I'm sure that there are people out there who will be overjoyed that I'm having financial difficulties, but I'm hoping the rest of you will not judge me too harshly and help me out.

But just a day later, David's faith in humanity had been restored:

I have to admit, in recent months, I have been discouraged by humanity. As I constantly read about how Trump's election has resulted in a country wide coming out party for haters, I was left wondering what the hell was wrong with everybody. To be honest, when I began this endeavor to square myself with the IRS, I was concerned I was pointlessly embarrassing myself for little gain. I suspected people would just tell me to solve my own problems, which admittedly some did.

But I was wrong. Thus far the support has been tremendous, both on my website and my GoFundMe page. Money has been coming in both from long time friends ($1000 from Elayne and Robin Riggs) and even long time opponents ($200 from Erik Larsen.) Colleen Doran is auctioning a piece on eBay here. Even more heartening have been the words of support, from people who have been in my situation and people who have been long time fans of my work.

Thus far people have given me, in combining both locations, around $30,000. I want to give something back.

David announced a rewards program for the campaign:

So I'm going to be instituting a rewards program.

When the amount reaches $40,000—the first level, which would get me almost halfway to my goal—I will post an original short story on the Crazy 8 website. It is entitled "Memento Morrie." Let's just say it was inspired by recent governmental events. I have just finished it and was going to begin sending it around to magazines, but to hell with it. You guys have earned it. There will also be rewards for $55,000, $75,000 and the final $88,000.

I figure it's the least I can do for so much generosity.

And the next day, that first reward tier was reached, thanks in large part, apparently, to a sizable sum from Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman:

I have to admit, I am somewhat stunned that we got to the first thank you level that fast. A huge shout out should go out to Robert Kirkman who donated an insanely large amount of money, which means I'm going to have to start watching "The Walking Dead."

So go and collect your reward, if you contributed. And if not, the GoFundMe page can be viewed here.

But act fast! The fundraiser is already halfway on its way to being sold out!

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