Aaron Carter Files For Bankruptcy

The 25-year-old singer’s $2,204,854 in liabilities include the $1,368,140 he owes the IRS as well as a $31,166 American Express bill, according to legal documents obtained by TMZ.

The gossip site detailed some of the assets that make up the $8,232.16 Carter has to his name. His assets include a 61-inch flat screen TV worth $500 and a Brietling watch worth $3,750, along with two MacBooks, 2 Headset mics, a speaker, a guitar, a Louis Vuitton backpack and $60 in cash. TMZ points out that Carter’s dog is also listed on the petition. And while we’re sure the dog is priceless to the singer, the pup’s worth is listed as zero.

And about the paycheck Carter’s earning from his current tour – CNN reports that even though Nick Carter’s baby brother is on a 75-city U.S. tour, he’s only making about $2,000 a month for those shows.

Well, to be exact, TMZ says his monthly income is $1,998.75. That doesn’t even cover all of his monthly expenses, which come to $2,005 including $600 for food, $150 for clothes and $65 for hygiene. TMZ notes that when Carter isn’t on tour he lives with a family member.

Carter’s publicist is looking on the bright side.

“This is not a negative thing,” publicist Steve Honig said, according to CNN. “It’s actually very positive. It’s him doing what he needs to do to move forward.”

Honig added, “The bulk of the debt is from over 10 years ago when he was a minor and not in control of his finances. This has happened to a lot of people who had fame at such at a very early age.”

And what about the substance-abuse issues that landed Carter in rehab two years ago?

Honig says Carter’s been “completely clean for quite some time” and has “really gotten his act together and is really doing well,” according to CNN.   

But while he may be doing well in his personal life, the same can’t be said for his wallet. As Honig pointed out, this isn’t Carter’s first time dealing with money troubles. The $1.3 million he owes the IRS dates back to the income he earned in 2003, according to CNN.

In 2002 Carter sued his former manager Lou Pearlman, accusing him of keeping hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties, according to Forbes, which notes the suit was settled out of court.

The pop singer won his second suit against Pearlman, which he filed in 2007 to get out of his recording contract because he signed it while he was a minor. Carter never got an accounting of his royalties because Pearlman is now in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy, money laundering and bank fraud charges.

Pearlman wasn’t the only manager Carter had a money issue with. When he filed for legal emancipation from his mother and manager Jane Carter in 2003, the singer accused his mother of taking more than $100,000 from his bank account, according to Forbes.