Actress Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls on the iconic ’70s series “Little House on the Prairie,” is more than $360,000 in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, The Detroit News reports.
The actress, who lives in Michigan with her husband, “thirtysomething” actor Timothy Busfield, owes federal taxes from 2011 to 2013, according to a lien filed by the IRS in February.
Gilbert, who like her husband recently appeared on the ABC series “Secrets and Lies,” blamed the debt on a combination of a lack of acting work, a generally bad economy and her 2011 divorce from actor Bruce Boxleitner.
“Like so many people across the nation, the recession hit me hard,” Gilbert told The Detroit News in a statement. “That, plus a divorce and a dearth of acting opportunities the last few years, created a perfect storm of financial difficulty for me.”
The actress added that she has arranged an payment plan with the IRS and expects to “fully pay off my debt.
“I’ve set up an installment plan to fully pay off my debt and will continue to work as hard as I can to erase this debt and dig myself out of this hole. I am absolutely positive that I can do it,” Gilbert said.
The IRS claims that Gilbert owes $219,989, $99,405 from 2012 and $41,157 from 2013.
Characterizing the debt as “a product of what happened with the economy,” Busfield said that the debt is “not a big deal.”
“(The debt) has more to do with the housing crash and divorce in the past,” Busfield said. “It’s a product of what happened with the economy. It’s unfortunate and it’s been happening a lot. It’s not a big deal.”
Gilbert and Busfield recently appeared on an episode of the NBC drama “The Night Shift,” which Busfield has also directed for.