During an appearance yesterday on NBC's Today show, Richard Hatch sought to excuse why he didn't pay taxes on the $1-million jackpot he won four years ago on the first season of the reality TV show Survivor.
The Newport resident told host Katie Couric that CBS should have withheld taxes from the check it sent him.
"I've always paid my taxes, and I'm always happy to pay my taxes," said Hatch. "But I believed the taxes on that particular amount were going to be paid either by CBS or withheld by them."
Couric didn't inquire about the additional $321,139 in income that Hatch allegedly failed to claim when he parlayed his fame into a gig as radio talk-show host in Boston.
In January, the U.S. Attorney's office announced that it was charging Hatch, 43, with two counts of tax evasion, for earnings from Survivor and the talk show. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. But under a plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney's office said it would recommend a lesser, unspecified sentence.
Hatch, however, has since informed prosecutors that he will not plead guilty. Last week, the U.S. Attorney's office announced it would withdraw the two charges and present the case to a grand jury for "consideration of all possible charges."
Hatch and his former lawyer had signed a six-page document indicating that Hatch would plead guilty. But yesterday he denied that had been his intent.
"I never made a plea agreement," he said. "A plea agreement is something that I was told would be made if I were to go to court and agree to what they said, which I never did."
Hatch appeared yesterday with his nationally known criminal and tax lawyer, Michael L. Minns, of Houston. They were in a studio in Los Angeles. Minns is the author of How to Survive the IRS: My Battles Against Goliath and Underground Lawyer.
Minns discussed the contract Hatch signed with CBS, which indicates that the grand prize will be "less all applicable withholdings, deductions and taxes."
"CBS is telling Richard . . . that they're going to take the withholding out as you do with any employee," said Minns. "That's another disagreement right now. I don't think CBS deliberately did something wrong; nobody had ever done anything like this before. There's not a form for prizes when you own people for 42 days, which is what this contract did.
"Under California law, the 'Survivors' and Richard -- the ultimate Survivor -- were employees of CBS. They were under total and complete control of CBS. So CBS was required by federal law to withhold."
Minns said that as an employee, "Rich would not be responsible for 100 percent of the Social Security and matching FICA."
Said Hatch, "I intend to pay my taxes. If anybody said that they were owed, I would pay them. We are still trying to unravel what's appropriate."
Any action by the Internal Revenue Service is separate from the federal charges a grand jury could bring against Hatch.
When Couric asked whether other Survivor winners had run into similar tax problems, Hatch said, "Oh, I have no idea. I was the first, the original winner. I'm not in contact with the other winners about their financial situations or what happened with them."
Reporter Richard Salit can be reached at (401) 277-7467 or by e-mail at rsalit [at] projo.com.
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