Wesley Snipes v. IRS

[coffeeseven]

http://www.reuters.com/article/mediaNews/idUSN1A23500320080111

Also see the complaint

http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/ARLComplaint.pdf

Reuters:

Snipes owed taxes on $38 million, U.S. says
Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:13pm EST

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan 10 - (Reuters) - Actor Wesley Snipes filed no tax returns on $37.9 million in income from 1999 to 2004, even after the Internal Revenue Service told him in 2002 that he was under criminal investigation, according to documents filed ahead of Snipes' tax fraud trial.

The trial was set to begin on Monday in U.S. District Court in Ocala, Florida, 80 miles northwest of Orlando and the celebrity enclave of Isleworth, where prosecutors say Snipes lived at the time of the suspected fraud.

Snipes, 45, was charged in a 2006 indictment along with a known tax protester and a former accountant whom the U.S. Justice Department said had been barred by a federal court from preparing other people's tax returns.

The tax fraud occurred at a time when Snipes was signing movie deals worth more than $10 million each for "Blade II" and "Blade: Trinity," according to the prosecution's summary.

During the six years he failed to file income tax returns, Snipes also tried to get fraudulent refunds from the IRS totaling $11.3 million for taxes he paid in 1996 and 1997, according to a timeline prepared by the prosecution.

Snipes on three occasions sent the U.S. Treasury what prosecutors called a "fictitious bill of exchange" totaling $14 million along with IRS payment vouchers, and at other times sent notices and a letter challenging the IRS' authority to criminally investigate.

In response, the IRS warned Snipes that his refund claims and correspondence were frivolous. He was dropped by his long-time tax adviser who first warned Snipes in a telephone call that he must pay taxes, according to the government timeline.

Prosecutors say that Snipes in 2000 joined a group called American Rights Litigators headed by Eddie Ray Kahn, a tax protester with convictions dating back to 1985, and paid Kahn a consulting fee of $2,000.

Kahn and former accountant Daniel P. Rosile are co-defendants with Snipes in next week's trial.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Xavier Briand)

[Raineyrocks]

http://www.reuters.com/article/mediaNews/idUSN1A23500320080111

Also see the complaint

http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/ARLComplaint.pdf

Reuters:

Snipes owed taxes on $38 million, U.S. says
Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:13pm EST

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan 10 - (Reuters) - Actor Wesley Snipes filed no tax returns on $37.9 million in income from 1999 to 2004, even after the Internal Revenue Service told him in 2002 that he was under criminal investigation, according to documents filed ahead of Snipes' tax fraud trial.

The trial was set to begin on Monday in U.S. District Court in Ocala, Florida, 80 miles northwest of Orlando and the celebrity enclave of Isleworth, where prosecutors say Snipes lived at the time of the suspected fraud.

Snipes, 45, was charged in a 2006 indictment along with a known tax protester and a former accountant whom the U.S. Justice Department said had been barred by a federal court from preparing other people's tax returns.

The tax fraud occurred at a time when Snipes was signing movie deals worth more than $10 million each for "Blade II" and "Blade: Trinity," according to the prosecution's summary.

During the six years he failed to file income tax returns, Snipes also tried to get fraudulent refunds from the IRS totaling $11.3 million for taxes he paid in 1996 and 1997, according to a timeline prepared by the prosecution.

Snipes on three occasions sent the U.S. Treasury what prosecutors called a "fictitious bill of exchange" totaling $14 million along with IRS payment vouchers, and at other times sent notices and a letter challenging the IRS' authority to criminally investigate.

In response, the IRS warned Snipes that his refund claims and correspondence were frivolous. He was dropped by his long-time tax adviser who first warned Snipes in a telephone call that he must pay taxes, according to the government timeline.

Prosecutors say that Snipes in 2000 joined a group called American Rights Litigators headed by Eddie Ray Kahn, a tax protester with convictions dating back to 1985, and paid Kahn a consulting fee of $2,000.

Kahn and former accountant Daniel P. Rosile are co-defendants with Snipes in next week's trial.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Xavier Briand)

I forgot about Wesley Snipes "owing" the irs.  I wonder what will happen.   I think Willie Nelson owed too a few years back and I'm pretty sure he was forced to pay them.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Willy was just a 'fuck up'.  It looks like they will go harder on Snipes.

[dalebert]

I may send him a note of support on an Anarchy In Your Head postcard.

[coffeeseven]

I may send him a note of support on an Anarchy In Your Head postcard.

A federal reserve note of support? 

[Caleb]

No, and it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if he would have used the moral position instead of the "show me the law" position.

[inertia]

...instead of the "show me the law" position.

Indeed.  Here's where "show me the law" can lead:

http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/UPDATE/Update2008-01-13.htm

[coffeeseven]

Our Constitution is, indeed, hanging by a thread. We pray the Supreme Court will reconsider this grievous decision that denies to the People a declaration of the full contours of the meaning of the last ten words of the First Amendment.

The patient has been dead for a long time but the doctor refuses to give up. Gotta respect his drive. Somehow I don't think we're going to see the Lazarus phenomenon.

[John Edward Mercier]

They appealed. More than likely the court will just read it out of a law dictionary for them.

[srqrebel]

No, and it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if he would have used the moral position instead of the "show me the law" position.

...wait, do you mean appealing to morality in front of a government judge?  Or in the form of civil disobedience asserting his sovereignty, in order to make a moral appeal to the people?

Just wondering... since appealing to morality in front of a gov't judge seems a lot like casting pearls to the swine.

[kola]

38 million in taxes? holy sheep-dip!

big gov needs to be eradicated.

How can this be done peacefully? It seems (to me) almost impossible.

Kola

[srqrebel]

big gov needs to be eradicated.

You betcha!  More to the point, the entire authoritarian model of government needs needs to be abandoned.

[John Edward Mercier]

38 million in taxes? holy sheep-dip!

big gov needs to be eradicated.

How can this be done peacefully? It seems (to me) almost impossible.

Kola

$38 million in earnings...

[Lloyd Danforth]

I would think if I earned that kind of money and questioned anything the government did, I would be devoting a lot of $'s to orgs like WTP and  getting the  situation the Browns and others are in, into the MSM.

[kola]

38 million in taxes? holy sheep-dip!

big gov needs to be eradicated.

How can this be done peacefully? It seems (to me) almost impossible.

Kola

$38 million in earnings...

oh..i read it wrong,

well..with penalties and interest our beloved IRS will calculate that he owes 38 million. Call it even.

Maybe Snipes will decide to  be "holed up" in his "fortress". Quick! call Little Miss Margot the Spin-Queen so she can "get the scoop". That P.OS.

Kola