Los Angeles (CNN) -- Singer Aaron Carter filed a
bankruptcy petition to shed more than $2 million in debt, mostly taxes
owed from when he was making tons of money as a teen sensation.
"This is not a negative
thing," Carter publicist Steve Honig told CNN. "It's actually very
positive. It's him doing what he needs to do to move forward."
The U.S. government is
Carter's biggest creditor, according to the petition. He owes the
Internal Revenue Service $1.3 million in back taxes from his income in
2003, when Carter was just 16.
"The bulk of the debt is
from over 10 years ago when he was a minor and not in control of his
finances," Honig said. "This has happened to a lot of people who had
fame at such at a very early age."
Carter is left with very
little to show for his early success, according to his bankruptcy
petition. He had just $60 cash in his wallet and $917 in his checking
account when he signed the petition last month. His bank savings account
held just $5.
His personal property
includes a 61-inch flat screen TV and his cell phone, all valued at just
$500. He does wear a $3,750 Breitling watch. Clothing, two laptops, a
guitar and a Louis Vuitton backpack put his fortune at just $8,200.
Carter owns the
publishing rights to the songs he wrote -- "Saturday Night" and "One
Better" -- but he doesn't currently get any royalties from them, the
filing said.
Still, Carter is going "in the right direction" and "really working his ass off," Honig said.
He acted in more than 400 performances in the off-Broadway cast of "The Fantasticks" last year.
He's currently on a
75-city tour of the United States, but the petition said he's only
earning about $2,000 a month for those performances. That money ends
when the tour ends in December.
Carter's expenses are
just $2,000 a month since he's living with a relative in Port Richey,
Florida, when he's not on the road, it said.
He dealt with
substance-abuse issues, but Carter's been "completely clean of quite
some time," Honig said. He spent time in drug rehab two years ago.
Carter's "really gotten his act together and is really doing well," his publicist said. READ MORE
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