Real Housewives of Beverly Hills veteran Kyle Richards has launched an explosive legal war against the tax authorities, accusing them of deliberately targeting her sprawling fortune and inflating her property taxes by hundreds of thousands of dollars in what she calls a “coordinated financial attack.”
Court filings obtained exclusively by DailyMail+ reveal that the 55-year-old Bravo star, who is in the middle of a high-stakes divorce from luxury real-estate broker Mauricio Umansky, is suing both state and county officials after forensic accountants allegedly uncovered a pattern of “double billing” on several of the couple’s shared assets.
According to the documents, at least three of the former couple’s joint properties — including their $13 million Beverly Hills estate, an $8 million Encino compound and a vacation retreat in Aspen — were each assessed twice for the same fiscal year. The alleged overlap triggered a cascade of penalties and late fees that ballooned the Richards-Umansky tax obligations from an already-hefty $210,000 to a staggering $394,872 in just twelve months.
Kyle’s legal team claims the so-called “assessment errors” began surfacing weeks after she quietly filed for divorce in early spring. Insiders say Richards initially believed the spike was a bookkeeping mistake, but “red flags” multiplied as new invoices arrived with unexplained surcharges and retroactive interest charges dating back two years.
“This is not an accident. This is a coordinated financial attack,” Richards declares in a sworn affidavit, insisting that the timing is “too convenient to be coincidence.” She alleges that the sudden tax surge came precisely as her marital assets were being untangled in family court, putting extraordinary pressure on her to sell off properties or negotiate a rushed settlement with Umansky.
Sources close to the reality star tell DailyMail+ that Richards has already spent more than $750,000 in legal fees and forensic accounting costs trying to unravel the mystery charges. “They thought she would be too distracted by the divorce to fight back,” one confidante says. “Instead, she’s bringing the fight right to their doorstep.”
Umansky, 54, has not been named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit but is listed as a “financial witness,” a move that insiders say could reignite tensions between the estranged spouses. While the luxury real-estate mogul has remained tight-lipped, court observers speculate that testimony about their shared holdings could expose previously undisclosed details about the couple’s nine-figure property empire.
Tax authorities have declined to comment on the pending litigation but insist that all assessments were “conducted in accordance with applicable statutes.” A spokesperson added that “any billing discrepancies will be addressed through the normal appeals process.”
Meanwhile, Richards has vowed to take the case as far as necessary, even to federal court, to recover what she claims are “unlawful overcharges” and protect her children’s inheritance. “They picked the wrong Beverly Hills housewife to bully,” a friend tells DailyMail+. “Kyle is furious, she’s focused, and she’s not backing down.”
The fiery showdown now threatens to expose the inner financial workings of one of Bravo’s most famous families, setting the stage for a courtroom drama as riveting as any RHOBH reunion — only this time, the stakes are measured in millions.
