Law & Justice

Paris Jackson Seeks $600 Million Transfer to Family Trust Amid Ongoing IRS Dispute

By TOI World Desk

Paris Jackson, 28, has filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court requesting that $600 million be moved from her late father Michael Jackson’s estate into the Michael Jackson Family Trust, which was established in 2009 for his three children. The trust was designed to provide each child with income when they turned 21, portions of the principal at 30, and additional distributions at 35 and 40. Paris says none of the children have received the intended trust distributions, leaving them dependent on discretionary payments from executor John Branca.

Paris’s lawyers argue that the estate has sufficient liquidity to make a substantial partial distribution. They cite the 2018 sale of the estate’s interest in EMI Music Publishing for $287.5 million, the 2020 sale of Neverland Ranch for $22 million, and a 2023 deal with Sony involving Michael’s music and other intellectual‑property assets, which together generated more than $1 billion before taxes and expenses. An estate accounting as of December 2024 shows about $850 million in cash and cash‑equivalent assets; after accounting for potential liabilities, roughly $600 million is deemed available for distribution.

The estate’s executors have opposed the transfer, saying that the trust cannot be fully funded until several legal matters are resolved, most notably a long‑running dispute with the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS originally sought about $700 million in taxes and penalties, but a court ruling has reduced that amount. The estate maintains that the final liability could still change, and therefore moving hundreds of millions into the trust now would be premature.

The estate has already distributed more than $200 million to the children, a figure the executors say is consistent with the terms of Michael’s will, which stipulates that no distribution is made until the children are in their 30s. Paris’s petition asks the court to order a preliminary transfer of $600 million to the trust or another amount the judge deems appropriate.

Paris has previously challenged aspects of the estate’s administration. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles judge ruled that $625,000 in bonus payments made by the estate’s executors to outside law firms in 2018 had to be returned to the estate after Paris objected to the payments.

A judge is scheduled to hear Paris’s request on December 4. The hearing will determine whether a partial transfer to the family trust is justified before the estate’s outstanding legal matters are fully resolved. The dispute centers on how quickly beneficiaries should receive the funds promised by Michael Jackson and how to protect the estate’s assets from potential tax liabilities.