Life is rough for the rich and the famous, what with all their money and drugs and expensive cars. I feel bad for them — I really do — but for the privilege of being Americans, there are certain things that we’re obligated to do.

These things aren’t always exciting. Stuff like voting and staying politically informed are just two of the unpleasant things we are tasked to do. And worst of all? Taxes.

Every April, United States citizens buckle down and file their tax returns, and then a few months later news inevitably breaks about celebrity X or celebrity Y owing the government outrageous amounts of money because of back taxes.

On Monday, reports surfaced that Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne owe the U.S. government more than $1.7 million in back tax payments. The government has placed a lien on one of the family’s Los Angeles homes. The Osbournes’ daughter Kelly, who currently serves as one of the hosts of E!’s “Fashion Police,” has owed back taxes to the state of California in the past.

America’s favorite dysfunctional family are not the only celebrities to have trouble paying their taxes. Willie Nelson, Nic Cage, Wesley Snipes and Girls Gone Wild’s always-classy owner/spokesman Joe Francis have all made names for themselves as celebrity tax-evaders. Val Kilmer, Xzibit, Sinbad, Ja Rule, Survivor winner Richard Hatch and Baldwin brother Stephen Baldwin have all also struggled to make their annual tax payments to the government.

Now, to be fair, it really is harder for celebrities to file their taxes. They typically bring in more money then your average citizen and that money is usually coming sporadically and from multiple sources. I’m sure it gets hard to keep track of all that, but it’s kind of important.

So important, in fact, that they’ve developed a thing called Turbo Tax to help you get through it very easily.

Now, I realize that this might seem like a lot of work to celebrities, but I promise, in the end, it’ll be worth it.

So, hop in your Escalade, drive to Best Buy and drop $59.99 on the 2010 edition. Or better yet, go to the website. Then all you have to do is fill out a few blanks and press submit. That too much for you? Head to an H&R Block where there are professionals that make a living off of filing people’s taxes.

Okay, to be fair, I don’t know H&R Block’s policies off the top of my head, and, in all seriousness if Nic Cage strolled into his nearest tax consultation chain store, they probably wouldn’t be able to work out all of his problems in a quick 15-minute session.

That isn’t the point. The point is that there are reliable and trustworthy professionals who will file your taxes without stealing your money.

There’s an entire industry of tax experts and, in the case of Patrick Cox, tax masters, who do this job on a daily basis. There is absolutely no excuse for millionaires to not pay their taxes. Whether you’re the washed-up brother of Kabletown executive Jack Donaghy or just an average citizen, paying your taxes is almost as important as being on television or in movies. Almost.