Wesley Snipes

Apr 24, 2008 4 Replies

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Dick Adams 18 years ago

Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison on tax charges Thursday, a victory for prosecutors who sought to make an example of him by aggressively pursuing the maximum penalty.

Three misdeanor charges of failing to file got him one year each to run consecutively.

It could have been much worse since his co-defendants were the founder of a group that purported to help members legally avoid paying taxes and an accountant who had his licenses revoked in both Ohio and Florida. With these guys as friends, who needs enemies.

While the prosecutors were able to make an example of him at sentencing, they apparently weren't that good at presenting their case. Snipes was acquitted on five other counts which included felony tax evasion and conspiracy.

Dick

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Phil Marti 18 years ago

Unfortunately it's unusual for people to get jail time for failure to file. Kudos to the judge.

I wasn't surprised by his acquittal on more serious charges. Celebrity aside, juries are prone to accept the "I was an idiot" defense.

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Harlan Lunsford 18 years ago

Looks like Snipes couldn't even get to first base with the judge.

Speaking of first base, it was, I think, Bud Abbott who asked the question "who's on first?" (with his sidekick, Lou Costello)

But I would ask a more pertinant question; "Who's IN first (place)? (grin)

ChEAr$, Harlan

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removeps-groups 18 years ago

Why does failing to file get jail time? He'll probably get parole, and if so after how long?

The real question is what penalty did he have to pay on the unpaid tax? I think that for fraud, the penalty is 75% of the tax due. I don't know if the late filing penalty or late payment penalty of 25% also applies. There should also be interest. I think once you pay your fines, there should be no jail time.

For how many years did he not file? And did he make estimated payments or withhold tax? If so, then the tax due could be very small or zero, in which case the penalty is 25% to 100% of $0 which is $0.

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DF2 18 years ago

He was in a group that maintained the "861 argument": ''that since the domestic activities of residents of the United States (Americans and resident aliens) are not shown to be taxable, the domestic income derived from such activities does not become taxable "gross income". ''

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Here is a search on that group.

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- with this post, we shall consider this thread closed.

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