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Posted on 04/28/2008 9:29:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Wesley Snipes had only been convicted of misdemeanors concerning his failure to file income tax returns.
And the action movie star had submitted written character testimonials from Denzel Washington, Woody Harrelson, and television's Judge Joe Brown to assist him in the judge’s consideration of his sentencing.
Through his attorneys, Snipes asked for probation rather than prison, which is the normal sentence with a conviction of someone without a criminal history. Still, in spite of it all, U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges sentenced Snipes to three years in prison.
Why did this happen?
Well, in February 2008, a federal jury acquitted Snipes of felony tax fraud and conspiracy (which could have placed him in the slammer for more than a decade) but convicted the actor on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return.
Snipes’ two co-defendants, a defrocked accountant and a tax protest leader, were convicted on the felony counts and may go to jail for 10 years.
Because Snipes is a celebrity, his case has received an enormous amount of publicity. In defense of his actions, he essentially asserted tax protest arguments that have consistently been brushed aside by the courts.
Unfortunately, unscrupulous people sell books, tapes and the like, which end up convincing some people that they don’t have to pay income tax.
Snipes claimed that the tax code did not mandate payment of income taxes by citizens who earned the money in this country. He additionally claimed that the IRS is not a legitimate government entity and therefore had no legal authority to collect taxes.
Jurors found that the actor failed to file for three years.
In the sentencing memo filed by his lawyer, Snipes also asserted that he didn’t have to file returns because he “was a 'stateless person' or 'nonresident alien.'”
The prosecutors’ sentencing memo stated that Snipes' policy was “to send checks received at his business office for deposit offshore.”
In addition, the memo stated that the actor paid approximately “$498,000 in personal payments to Snipes' grandmother, his former wife, his then-fiancee, his personal lawyer, a tax defier organization, and M&S Finance, the Swiss alter-ego to which he fraudulently conveyed his business holdings in 1999,” and that the amount of unreported gross income for the three-year period was “$13 million.”
Snipes exhibited a “history of contempt over a period of time” for U.S. tax laws, the judge said.
You can bet Judge Hodges knew full well that lots of people who maintain similar beliefs to Snipes and his co-defendants were watching the case and would be encouraged not to file and not to pay if Snipes hadn’t been given the max.
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James Hirsen is a media analyst, Trinity Law School professor, and teacher of mass media law at Biola University.
Or not. I can never remember which one it is... ;-)
Currently, 600,000+ citizens are represented by one representative.
So we should increase the size of the House of Representatives so that we can have one representative for every 20,000 people? Let's see, for 300 million people that would be 15,000 representatives. To me, having potentially 435 tax and spend liberals in Congress is a bad thing, but 15,000? That sounds like big government liberalism to me!
In the beginning of the Republic, pretty only people who were taxed could vote on taxation.
Currently, the voting pool has been heavily diluted with those who SUBSIST on tax dollars.
No kidding, but that's a spending problem, not a taxation problem.
Our "representatives" just tried to dilute the voting pool even further with their phony "amnesty".
Off topic, but you're shocked by this? Did you forget the results of the 2006 elections? Most of the anti-shamnesty people were thrown out of office. Look at the 2008 primaries. All of the anti-shamnesty candidates are gone. What message does this send to elected officials, that shamnesty is OK of course!
What in God's name are you talking about when you talk about "taxation with representation"?
Way to take the Lord's name in vain, but I guess that's OK when you want to make a point? But I'll bite. You do realize that when we were a colony, we had no say in any taxes that were imposed unto us by the Crown. Under our system, we do have a say. Wesley Snipes, being a wealthy person, could have started a lobbying effort to repeal the 16th amendment if he wanted to. Sure it would be difficult, but that is the way our system is. Perhaps he should have stayed in Namibia if he hated paying our taxes so much.
So you think drinking and driving, which in itself is a gross act of negligence and irresponsibility that endangers many innocent lives, is OK?
I think that if you hurt somebody with an auto while drinking, the cops should be able to pull you out of the car and execute you by the side of the road.
I don't think that the states should be able to shake down citizens for revenue. For example, the state of Taxachusetts, "the Cradle of Liberty", wants to institute ZERO drinks if you're driving. All for "safety" of course - not for revenue at all! Oh, NO! We wouldn't THINK of cashing in on a law like that! :-)
Every post you've made fingers you as a government-loving statist. What the heck are you doing on a Constitutionalist board?
So you think drinking and driving, which in itself is a gross act of negligence and irresponsibility that endangers many innocent lives, is OK?
Have you stopped beating your wife?
I can't tell you how many times I've seen statist smear posts like this one of yours on this board. :-)
You were the one who defended drinking and driving, not me.
That is not true. It is very difficult to get one there. I lived in Humboldt County and I knew the sheriff there. I still had to jump through many hoops.
I wont even talk about trying to get one in the bay area. Forget about it.
I moved to Arizona last year, and It is eaisier here.
My Congressman is Luis Gutierrez. My Senators are Dick Durban and BARACK! They do not represent me. Neither do all the "conservatives" who do nothing about taxes. I have no say in any of the government's decisions. Laws that are made by corrupt stupid twits and run contrary to human freedom should not be obeyed. To me being a conservative does not mean blindly obeying the dictates of corrupt statist authority. I didn't compare snipes to the foundering fathers. I doubt he's taking a stand, he just wanted to keep his cash and/or had a bad accountant. What would jailing him do? He can't make any money for them to take when he's locked up.
Another smear post.
Have you stopped beating your pets?
Hate to break it to you but the 16th amendment makes the income tax constitutional. Until it is repealed, the government at all levels has the power to impose and collect income taxes. Don't like it? Work for the repeal of this amendment.
I can't begin to explain how clueless you are about government.
I encourage you not to pay taxes.
Practically every Californian can get a CCW.”
You must live in a different California than me.
But I've read thousands of articles over my time here at Free Republic, and many point to the same thing:
A long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evincing a design to reduce us under absolute despotism...
Government is out of control. It will become more and more so over the next 10 years. The salaries, health benefits and pensions of the government workers are at stake. We are being enslaved to pay for the comfort and luxury of our enslavers.
You advocate "working to change the system". I presume that you work a full time job. After you're done working for the day, then you can begin "working to change the system" after hours.
Meanwhile, 20, 30, 40 or more full-time government workers have been working all day to further bind you and I in nets of words.
Good luck with that...
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Applauding someone going to jail for income tax is just sad. The income tax is nothing but slavery, a shakedown by the Mob we call government. There is nothing different between the mob telling a shop owner he had best give them 35% of his income or else and the federal government doing the same. Nothing.
Before any applauds this his jail term, according to several legal studies everyone does something nearly every day that could land them in jail if the maximums were applied.
“Despite my screenname, I have never evaded taxes. But no one should be sentenced to prison for tax evasion. If convicted in a court of law, seizure of assets - enough to cover the amount of tax owed - should suffice.”
Ding ding ding!
The tax codes as they stand are among the worst developments in America. They reward “loophole-ery,” punish advancement, are ridiculously complicated, and rapacious in volume. They are well placed among bloated government, government spending, popular vote to elect senators, and a rampantly activist judiciary.
Ruefully...
This is not just about poor old Wes , though I feel for him . When historians look for a defining moment or ultimate cause of the collapse of our system , it might be said all was lost when the unproductive learned of and successfully deployed a strategy to help themselves to the purse of the productive , by police state force if need be .
If guns were outlawed in your state would you comply?
The IRS and the Courts collude every year in convicting and imprisoning a high-profile celebrity AT OR NEAR THE APRIL FILING DATE pour encourager les autres.
You also see well-known execs and celebrity arrests made in the months and weeks leading up to the filing date. It gets publicity in the media for free.
It is a standard procedure in the IRS manual for reminding us to be good boys and girls when filing our taxes.
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