Karin Slaughter’s recently released latest novel False Witness focuses on a lawyer in a prestigious Atlanta firm gearing up for a criminal trial. Coincidentally we have this week the outcome of her own legal drama, which likely only excites the tax blogosphere. Her appeal to the Eleventh Circuit of a 2019 Tax Court decision confirming that she owed almost $190,000 in self-employment tax for 2010 and 2011 was unsuccessful.
Crime Writer
Karin Slaughter is a very successful writer of crime thrillers. Between her Grant County series and Will Trent series and some stand alone works she has twenty one novels, starting with Blindsighted in 2001. According to her website people have bought over 35 million copies of her books which have been published in 120 countries.
Ms. Slaughter appears to be very discreet. There is not much about her personal life in the public record. It is reasonable to infer from the tax litigation that her income is quite substantial. She excluded a portion of her income from writing and promoting her work as attributable to her brand and therefore not subject to self-employment tax. In 2010 she excluded over $4.5 million from self-employment income and $2.7 million in 2011.