An heir to the Mellon fortune, with a chalet in Switzerland and a posh Fifth Avenue pad overlooking the park, was told he cannot evade Internal Revenue Service queries simply because he’s rich enough to globetrot and so doesn’t live in NYC year-round.
A Manhattan federal judge ordered James Ross Mellon II, who has blown off IRS summonses going back to 2014, to start cooperating with the tax man — pronto.
“There is no jurisdiction — none, zero — for the respondent to flout these summonses.”
Judge Paul Englemayer said at a hearing Wednesday.
Mellon’s lawyer argued that his client — who has been described as a “tax protestor,” — should be permitted to ignore the IRS because he renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1978.
“He is neither a citizen nor a resident of the United States,” attorney Frank Agostino told the judge.
When asked about his posh Fifth Avenue apartment near Central Park, Agostino said Mellon’s wife, who was also ordered to turn over documents, lives there by herself.
“They live interesting, separate lives,” Agostino told the judge.
Judge Englemayer said Mellon is not protected from IRS summons “due to his good fortune to have multiple abodes around the world.”
The IRS has demanded financial documents, foreign tax documents and travel documents that might help the IRS determine Mellon’s residency.
It’s not yet clear how much the IRS thinks the Mellons owe Uncle Sam, but it is probing taxes paid by both Mellon and his wife Vivian Ruesch — going back to 2005.
Forbes says the Mellon clan is worth an estimated $11.5 billion.
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