Posted on 10/30/2007 4:26:01 PM PDT by Lurking Libertarian
Former IRS agent convicted of failing to pay taxes Stone Mountain woman testifies she believes she wasn't required to file returns
By BILL RANKIN The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/30/07
Sherry Peel Jackson, a former IRS revenue agent and certified public accountant, told a federal jury Tuesday she was sure she did not have to file income tax returns.
But after less than 30 minutes of deliberations, the jury convicted Jackson of failing to file income tax returns from 2000 through 2004. The Stone Mountain woman faces a maximum of four years in prison. She will be sentenced early next year.
defendant. She worked for as an revenue agent from 1988 to 1995 and then worked as an accountant, at one time landing a state contract to audit day care centers.
But in July 2000, Jackson testified, she began to question whether she had to pay income taxes. By the next year, she decided she was not going to file a tax return.
Sitting at witness stand, with large books of federal regulations and the tax code in front of her, Jackson said she could not find any section of the tax code that held her liable for income taxes.
"I'd done a lot of research, and I was just about sure," she testified, "I did not have to file an income tax return."
During cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Langway read Section 1 of the tax code to Jackson, who is married. A tax is imposed on "every married individual," Langway read, asking Jackson how she could not be an individual.
"I couldn't find the definition of 'individual,' " Jackson replied.
Lowell H. Becraft Jr., one of Jackson's attorneys, told jurors they should not convict her of willfully disobeying the law because Jackson had a "good faith" reason to believe she did not have to file taxes.
He reminded the jury that Jackson attended Tuskegee University and the University of Georgia, raised a family and lived the life of an ordinary American.
"You may have never heard of this before," Becraft said. "To you, it may sound wild. It may sound crazy. ... But she believes she's not required to file tax returns."
Langway called Jackson's reasoning "cockamamie" and "absurd."
"She's an 'individual' — she knows that," Langway said. "You should disbelieve everything she said."
STONE HER
Better yet, stone those who tax us.
Someone needs to page Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton.
Betting she was a fairtaxer...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I guess she figured she would use the "it depends on what the definition of is..is" gambit. It seemed to work for a former scumbag president.
“I couldn’t find the definition of ‘individual,’ “ Jackson replied.
Does the fact that she WAS an IRS agent ADD to the credibility of her perspective, rather than detract from it, perhaps.....?
The great thing about having a 60,000+ page tax code is that EVERYONE is breaking one of the "rules".
Now, it's up to our masters to decide who gets punished.
"The law is in my mouth."
This was a criminal tax case. not a civil case. The Government had to prove 3 things: that she was legally required to file a return (she was, because she earned more than the minimum); that she didn't file one (she admitted that part); and that she failed to file deliberately, with the knowledge that she was breaking the law. Her defense was that she honestly believed that she didn't have to file.
Her background in the IRS hurt her on that score, because she couldn't deny having been trained in the Tax Code. And when, on cross-examination, she couldn't explain away section 1 of the tax code, her case went straight down.
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