Iron Man Alum Terrence Howard Under Criminal Investigation for Tax Evasion

There's an old saying that claims there are only two things in life that you can count on, death and taxes, but there's a third thing that you can probably safely bet on: if you don't take care of your taxes properly, the federal government isn't going to be happy about it and for Iron Man star Terrence Howard, that's something he's currently getting a real-life reminder of. Howard is reportedly under investigation for criminal tax evasion.

According documents obtained by The Blast, the federal government is interested in possible financial crimes committed by Howard, his third wife Mira Pak, and Universal Bridges Inc., a company that Pak owns. The ongoing case is being handled by the United States Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

According to The Blast, this is not the first time that Howard has had tax-related issues. In April, Howard was hit with a tax lien from the State of California Franchise Tax Board. The lien, which is for a total of $143,538.61, stems from taxes owed from 2010. Additionally, Howard had a federal tax lien back in 2010 for $1.1 million as well as one in 2006 for $600,000.

Howard has reportedly hired a high-profile, white-collar criminal attorney to deal with the matter and the report also noted that Howard and Pak first became aware of the investigation on May 20.

Howard is currently starring on Fox's Empire, but is possibly best known to fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for having played James Rhodes in Iron Man. He was later replaced by Don Cheadle in Iron Man 2 -- and various reports have emerged over time as to why Howard wasn't involved in the second film, including claims of Marvel Studio being disinterested due to a poor collaborative experience. Whatever the reason for Howard's MCU departure, the actor has been pretty clear that he also has no interest in ever being involved with future MCU projects.

"You know what's so funny? Even though I love Don Cheadle so much and I love what he's done, I still hear a lot of fans asking, 'Am I going to come back and be War Machine? Am I going to come back and be War Machine?'" Howard confirmed on Watch What Happens Live. "I think they could have a huge franchise off of it, but f-ck em."