Source: thatgoodhit.com

Representing for the black girls in the entertainment industry, Rihanna is one of the highest paid celebrities under 30.

The 24-year-old popstar sealed the number 3 spot on the Forbes’ list released today. MTV reports:

Though she recently filed suit against her former accountants, Rihanna reportedly raked in $53 million, much of it as a result of her 85-show world tour and sales from the Talk That Talk album. She also gets paid via endorsement deals with Vita Coco coconut water and Nivea lotion and took in millions more through her Reb’l Fleur fragrance.

“Talk that Talk” is Rihanna’s sixth album and was released in November of last year. As of June 2012, the album has sold nearly a million copies in the United States as well as hundreds of thousands of copies around the world.

This list, dominated by women, includes the celebrities’ income from May of 2011 to May of 2012. Justin Beiber, the only male in the top 5, is in the 2nd spot for taking home $55 million dollars in that time-frame. Taylor Swift is the number one highest paid celeb under 30 with $57 million. Despite declining album sales across the industry, Forbes says Taylor can be counted on to sell at least 4 million copies of every album. She also reportedly brought in about $1 million per sold-out concert and she has a lucrative deal with CoverGirl makeup. Lady Gaga is in 4th place with $52 million and Katy Perry rounded out the top five taking home $45 million.

MTV lists the rest of the top 10: Adele ($35 million), Kristen Stewart ($34.5 million), Lil Wayne ($27 million), Taylor Lautner ($26.5 million) and Robert Pattinson ($26.5 million).

Clearly, it pays to be a female in the music industry.

Are you surprised by this list?

Follow Alissa on Twitter @AlissaInPink

More on Madame Noire!

• You Stole My Steez: 8 Musicians Who People Say Got Famous Copying Other Singers
• What Are We Playing For? Why Competition In a Relationship Makes Both Partners Lose
• Good Sex, Are You Having It? The Importance of Communication In The Bedroom
• The Time I was Sexually Assaulted…by a Woman
• True Life: I’ve Done Crazy Things to Impress People…
• Wayne Brady, Bill Maher and The Problem With What Black Manhood Means to NON-Black People
• 8 Things We Want To Tell Our Potential Suitors: The First Date No No’s For Men

Source: judyhalone.com

This week, using her real name “Robyn Fenty”, Rihanna filed a lawsuit against her former accountants for mismanaging her finances over the span of five years.

The New York Daily News reports:

Rihanna sued her former accountants Thursday, accusing them of being blundering beancounters who squandered millions of her dollars and got her audited by Uncle Sam.

The singer’s lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court accuses Berdon LLP of New York and two of the company’s accountants of breach of contract and negligence, among other claims.

The suit says Rihanna hired Berdon as her financial manager in 2005 when she was 16 and her music career was just getting off the ground in her native Barbados.

It alleges Rihanna lost millions of dollars on her 2009 “Last Girl on Earth Tour” because Berdon failed to properly manage her cash flow, expenses and touring income.

It also accuses Berdon of mismanaging Rihanna’s taxes, including failing to file tax returns in certain instances.

As a result of the firm’s negligence, the suit says, Rihanna is now being audited by the IRS for the tax years 2008 to 2010.

The suit also blames Berdon with failing to uncover millions of dollars in unpaid royalities owed to the singer.

And it says Berdon was negligent in failing to discourage Rihanna from buying a home in Beverly Hills during her money-losing “Last Girl on Earth” tour.

The suit says Rihanna fired Berdon in September when she learned for the first time the extent of the alleged mismanagement.

“Despite having earned millions of dollars in revenues during Berdon’s tenure Fenty learned that her net income after payment of expenses and exorbitant commissiones to defendant was a fraction of that amount,” the suit says.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. Reuters reports a spokesman for Berdon, Michael Tasch, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Mitnick and Gounis have since left the firm and could not be immediately reached for comment either.

If what Rihanna alleges is correct, then she has lost millions of dollars because of shady accountants.

Reuters reports

Her lawsuit said several of the Barbados-born singer’s national and international tours between 2005 and 2010 suffered losses compared to her last tour “Loud” that was a financial success after she had parted ways with Berdon. Her lawsuit also said the firm did not do monthly planning reports, and performed little record-keeping of Rihanna’s personal and business expenses, including those for Tourihanna, according to the suit. For example, during 2008 and 2009, the accountants kept only 2 percent to 4 percent of all receipts for expenses charged on the singer’s personal credit card, the suit said.

Rihanna isn’t the only celebrity to have weathered problems with accountants. In 2010, Khloe Kardashian claimed she paid an $18,000 dollar tax lien to the IRS through her accountant and her accountant kept the money. Mr Biggs, Wesley Snipes, and Damon Dash have all had problems with their accountants too, an just last year celebrity accountant Kenneth Starr was sentenced to 90 months in prison for defrauding his clients out of millions of dollars.

The IRS is always after one celebrity or another and it looks like Rihanna was on the short list. Let’s hope she gets things all squared away with these people and the IRS because we definitely don’t want to see her get arrested because of tax problems!

Follow Alissa Henry on Twitter @AlissaInPink

More on Madame Noire!

• Party of One Please: Things I’ve Learned To Enjoy By Myself
• MN Exclusive: Warryn & Erica Campbell On How They Met, Their Family and Managing To Work Together
• You Are Not The Father! The Most Memorably Ratchet Moments From The Maury Povich Show
• Drop The Flat Iron Like It’s Hot: Summer Hairstyles To Help You Beat the Heat
• And They Say Only Black Women are Bitter? Why Bitter Black Men Need To Have a Seat…Several
• Stop Arguing About Dumb Stuff! How I Learned To Keep The Peace In My Relationship
• Old Habits Die Hard: Learning Not To Dim My Light So Others Can Feel Like They’re Shining