The six-year legal battle over pop superstar Prince’s estate has ended, meaning the process of distributing the artist’s wealth could begin next month.
The star’s wealth, which totaled $156.4 million, was fought over by a number of that star’s potential heirs because the Purple Rain singer did not leave a will before his untimely death at 57 in 2016.
The Internal Revenue Service and Comerica Bank & Trust, the estate’s administrator, finally came to an agreement on the valuation after giving wildly different estimations at the beginning.
While the government agency originally set their opinion at $163.2 million, Comerica Bank & Trust gave a much more modest value of $82.3 million.
Prince died of a fentanyl overdose in 2016. His heirs started a legal battle following his death. Two of Prince’s six sibling heirs, Alfred Jackson and John R. Nelson, have since died. Two others are in their 80s.
‘It has been a long six years,’ an attorney for three of Prince’s siblings L. Londell McMillan said at a hearing on Friday.
According to ABC News, administrator’s will evenly divide the estate between the three oldest heirs and a New York music company called Primary Wave.
The agreement the sides came to in October resulted in the IRS dropping a $6.4 million ‘accuracy-related penalty’ it had levied. The Minnesota Department of Revenue also dropped their own penalty.
The valuation on the property may be huge, but the taxes on it will also be large. Taxes are expected to total tens of millions of dollars.
Approximately $5 million of the money will be tax-free under federal law but the remaining amount will be taxed at 40%.
Minnesota state tax exempts $3 million of the money but will tax it at 16% after that.