Martin Scorsese owes 2.8m in tax

Martin Scorsese reportedly owes $2.8 million in tax.

The 'Taxi Driver' director - who has previously been asked to pay $1.9 million in back taxes in a series of demands from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the last decade - was asked to pay the past-due notice last month, although insiders have claimed it is only as a result of "mismanagement" from now-jailed accountant Kenneth Starr.

A source said: "Scorsese had been mismanaged for a number of years when he was at Starr and s**t started to happen again.

"In a general sense, his finances were messed up, and this is probably one of many things that didn't get tended to."

However, Scorsese's representative Leslee Dart has denied he owes any money, claiming the request is a mistake.

Dart said: "The IRS prematurely filed this lien even though Mr. Scorsese had an agreement with the IRS to make payments and was fully complying. As of this moment, the entire amount is full paid, and he has no current IRS debts."

Last year Scorsese and his company Sikelia Productions were sued by a court-appointed receiver for Kenneth claiming he had not paid a $600,000 fee for services provided since 2006.

However, lawyers for the 68-year-old filmmaker have denied those claims in papers filed at Manhattan Supreme Court.

Kenneth was jailed for seven-and-a-half years last week for his involvement in a fraudulent Ponzi scheme - where separate investors are paid returns not from profit earned through their own money but funding from other investors.