Mayweather asks IRS for temporary reprieve

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is telling the IRS that he cannot settle his 2015 tax liability until he claims the windfall from his upcoming fight against Conor McGregor on Aug. 26. According to a report by ESPN, Mayweather filed a petition in tax court on July 5th asking for a reprieve until this time.

"Although the taxpayer has substantial assets, those assets are restricted and primarily illiquid," the petition said, according to the legal website Law360. "The taxpayer has a significant liquidity event scheduled in about 60 days from which he intends to pay the balance of the 2015 tax liability due and outstanding."

The tally on Mayweather’s outstanding tax bill has not been made public, but according to a Law360 report, the IRS has previously contended that Mayweather had the resources to pay the bill immediately — even if that required him to sell property or take out a loan.

In Mayweather’s biggest fight of 2015 he made roughly $220M for fighting Manny Pacquiao and immediately after the fight posted a photo of a check for $100M — his minimum guaranteed purse for the fight. That check didn’t include tax withholdings though, meaning that it was up to Floyd to settle up with Uncle Sam afterwards. Apparently he didn’t do so to Uncle Sam’s satisfaction.

In this newly filed petition, Mayweather also asks the court to reduce the penalties he’s incurred from his outstanding tax debt. The average failure-to-pay penalty is 0.5% of the amount owed per month, so considering that Floyd’s 2015 tax bill is about 15 months overdue, he’s looking at about 7.5% on top of whatever the balance is.