How Yo Gotti almost lost his 15 houses because he didn’t know he had to pay property taxes

Mario Sentell Giden Mims, better known as Yo Gotti, is an American rapper who has been in the music industry for decades and got his breakthrough with his 2016 album, The Art of the Hustle, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

In a recent interview, his properties became the center of discussion over his inability to pay property taxes for years due to a lack of information. Speaking to “Earn Your Leisure,” he revealed that he was unaware he had to pay back taxes to the government.

He recalled viewing taxes as a celebration because he used to receive gifts from his mother around tax season. Little did he know that he was receiving these gifts because his mother had received a tax refund.

“I grew up thinking, when you heard of taxes, my mama and ’em got tax money. That’s when we got new Jordans. We got new outfits… It was a celebration when it was tax time,” he said. “We was waiting on tax time. It was better than Christmas. So, I didn’t know… even in my early stages of getting money, I didn’t know we had to pay. I didn’t know because of a lack of information; they didn’t teach me that in school,” AfroTech quoted him as saying.

He carried his lack of financial literacy into his business deals which nearly landed him in trouble. As a real estate investor, he recalled purchasing 10 to 15 homes with cash but later got a letter warning that his property could be confiscated.

“I was buying real estate early right, and I just happened to get a letter. They said like, ‘Yo, we’re gonna… seize your property if you don’t pay this,’ and I didn’t even know you had to pay property taxes on a house that you paid cash for,” he said.

“At this time, bro, I got 10, 15 houses I done paid cash for that I had for four, five years that I’d never paid a property tax on because I didn’t know. So, it just so happened that I get a letter in the mail telling me that… they’re going to seize the properties if I don’t pay these property taxes… So, I hit my lawyer, they weren’t even a tax lawyer… he was criminal lawyer… So I hit him like, ‘Yo, let me, I ain’t seen these papers.’ and he sent me to a tax lawyer and a CPA… and I sat down with them, and they they pretty much put me on game.”

Now he is working to ensure that his colleagues do not go through what he did. One way he is doing this is by advising his artists to hire a certified public accountant (CPA) while providing additional advice about financial literacy.

“One of the things I do, we make sure that first time we give you a dollar, we give you money, make sure you’re doing this, and we even advise certain things, ‘Make sure you get you a CPA,’” said Gotti, who is the founder and CEO of record label Collective Music Group. “I’m givin’ you the information, like, ‘Yo, you need this’ and ‘This why,’ and I’m giving them examples. ‘This is what happened to me. This what happens, so make sure this don’t happen to you.’”

The rapper, who never finished college, has built a massive empire worth $100 million, according to Forbes. In an interview, he revealed that he was inspired to pursue higher education by the way billionaire celebrity rapper Jay-Z has conducted himself over the years.

In the in-depth interview about his $100 million empire with Forbes in February, the 43-year-old musician disclosed that, since December 2023, he has been enrolled in classes at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, focusing on corporate valuation as part of moves to grow his empire.

He said that along the way of his music career, he ventured into entrepreneurship. Yo Gotti’s empire now includes multiple businesses. One of his major businesses is the record label Collective Music Group (CMG). Under CMG, he oversees a roster of talented artists, including Moneybagg Yo, GloRilla, and BlocBoy JB.

The 43-year-old also owns the restaurant Prive, which is located in his hometown of Memphis, TN, and holds a minority stake in the Major League Soccer team, D.C. United.

In addition to his businesses, he also has a collection of luxurious properties. The rapper owns a 10,000-square-foot Tuscan-style mansion just north of Malibu. Also, he has an impressive watch collection that he claims is worth about $10 million and includes timepieces by Patek Philippe, Rolex, and Vacheron Constantin.