As you cover the Wesley Snipes tax prosecution story, I thought you might be interested in the thoughts of Frank Doti, a California bar association tax law specialist and professor at Chapman University’s School of Law (you can find his bio here: http://www.chapman.edu/law/faculty/doti.asp):
“Obviously this case has garnered a lot of media attention because of the celebrity status of Wesley Snipes. Although the IRS does not say so directly, it is commonly known that it criminally prosecutes persons of notoriety. The IRS believes that the media attention, especially around tax filing season, tends to put fear in the minds of your average taxpayer to properly file and pay taxes. An unknown tax cheat will probably not have the same effect, if it's even covered by the major media,” Prof. Doti points out.
“Another example of the IRS prosecuting a celebrity is Richard Hatch, who won the first Survivor competition. He is still in prison serving his five year sentence for failing to file and pay taxes on his $1,000,000 winnings from the contest.
“Snipes and Hatch tried to blame others for their failure to file. Snipes used as the basis for his defense the advice he received from his "tax advisor." He alleged that the advisor told him the federal income tax is unconstitutional. Others have tried to use this defense in the past. In recent years the courts have not been sympathetic to these arguments. I recall being in court a few years ago for one of our clinical education cases and watching a women argue her own case claiming the income tax is unconstitutional based on advice she read in a book. The judge was very diplomatic, but ruled against her,” Prof. Doti states.
“The bottom line is that excuses about illegality of the tax code have been rejected over and over again. Swipes probably took the chance at a time when the courts had not yet imposed the severe civil penalties which they are imposing now. Also, he was probably advised that he would not face criminal prosecution because others were claiming the same defense. That was obviously a big mistake, especially because of his celebrity status,” Prof. Doti concludes.
“Obviously this case has garnered a lot of media attention because of the celebrity status of Wesley Snipes. Although the IRS does not say so directly, it is commonly known that it criminally prosecutes persons of notoriety. The IRS believes that the media attention, especially around tax filing season, tends to put fear in the minds of your average taxpayer to properly file and pay taxes. An unknown tax cheat will probably not have the same effect, if it's even covered by the major media,” Prof. Doti points out.
“Another example of the IRS prosecuting a celebrity is Richard Hatch, who won the first Survivor competition. He is still in prison serving his five year sentence for failing to file and pay taxes on his $1,000,000 winnings from the contest.
“Snipes and Hatch tried to blame others for their failure to file. Snipes used as the basis for his defense the advice he received from his "tax advisor." He alleged that the advisor told him the federal income tax is unconstitutional. Others have tried to use this defense in the past. In recent years the courts have not been sympathetic to these arguments. I recall being in court a few years ago for one of our clinical education cases and watching a women argue her own case claiming the income tax is unconstitutional based on advice she read in a book. The judge was very diplomatic, but ruled against her,” Prof. Doti states.
“The bottom line is that excuses about illegality of the tax code have been rejected over and over again. Swipes probably took the chance at a time when the courts had not yet imposed the severe civil penalties which they are imposing now. Also, he was probably advised that he would not face criminal prosecution because others were claiming the same defense. That was obviously a big mistake, especially because of his celebrity status,” Prof. Doti concludes.
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