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January 17, 2008
Posted: 09:55 AM ET
WASHINGTON– Film actor Wesley Snipes and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee have one thing in common. They both believe that the federal income tax laws have become so incomprehensible that the frustrated public may be ready to do something drastic about it. Huckabee is hoping the voters will favor his radical proposal to abolish the income tax and the IRS in favor of a simple federal sales tax. Snipes, who went on trial this week in Florida on charges of income tax fraud and conspiracy, hopes the jury will accept his story that the tax laws were so bewildering to him that he didn’t understand he was obligated to pay taxes. It’s a stretch, because Snipes was smart enough to earn $38 million dollars, yet his defense is that he couldn’t get himself together to file tax returns or pay any taxes. At the time, Snipes was a member of a tax protest group that maintained that Americans are not legally obligated to pay income taxes. Generally, ignorance of the law is no defense, but the Supreme Court has ruled that in situations such as this, the defendant can argue to the jury that he sincerely believed he did not have to pay taxes. Defendants have usually found this argument a tough sell. Jurors tend to believe everybody knows they have to pay taxes. Snipes has an additional problem because he gave the IRS three bad checks to cover $14 million in taxes—suggesting he realized he was required to pay. On the face of it, Snipes’ defense (and, perhaps, Huckabee’s problematic sales tax scheme) face uphill going based on cold logic. But there’s always the chance that the public’s distaste for the convoluted tax system could strike a chord of sympathy in the jury (it only takes one to hang a jury) for Snipes’ claim that it was all more than he could understand. The outcome would be a devastating blow to the tax system–and food for thought about the need to simplify the tax code. – Fred Graham, In Session Senior Editor Filed under: Fred Graham |
 
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