The actor-and-comedian – who was paid $20 million for each film he starred in for the ‘Rush Hour’ franchise – is believed to owe the huge sum to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after failing to pay taxes in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
In addition to the $11.5 million figure, the 37-year-old star is also reportedly in $3.6 million worth of debt to the state of California.
Officials at the IRS have now filed documents with the Los Angeles County Recorder’s Office to launch legal proceedings in the hope of retrieving the unpaid taxes.
Tucker is not the first celebrity to fall foul of the US tax system.
In 2007, Jennifer Lopez’s husband Marc Anthony was ordered to pay $2.5 million in back taxes, after he failed to file returns from 2000 to 2004 – a period when he is believed to have earned $15.5 million.
Similarly, ‘National Treasure’ actor Nicolas Cage was forced to sell off many of his assets – including properties, yachts and a 67-million-year-old dinosaur skull worth $276,000 – after being hit with a $6.3 million tax bill last year.
Earlier this month, Wesley Snipes lost his appeal against a three-year jail sentence for wilfully failing to file federal income tax returns in April 2008.