Thursday, October 19, 2006

Wesley Snipes and Michelle Williams's dad

What do Wesley Snipes and Michelle Williams's dad have in common? They're both allegedly tax cheats.

From yesterday's Post:
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service wants to question Williams _ a resident of the Virgin Islands _ about a possible $1.5 million in unpaid taxes from book royalties and earnings from international seminars he conducted between 1990 and 2001.

And from Tuesday's edition:
The indictment said Snipes conspired with American Rights Litigators' founder Eddie Ray Kahn and tax preparer Douglas P. Rosile Sr. to file false refund claims based on a bogus argument that only income from foreign sources was subject to taxation.
Check out The Smoking Gun to read the entire indictment.


Folks, to clarify, this is not even close to the weirdest anti-tax argument that I've seen. There are whole websites devoted to them -- heck, the IRS even publishes some of them on their website. But the one consistent thing about all these arguments is that they're dumb. And people should know better.

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I called Jones High School in Orlando; Carole said W. Snipes was not there.

Ryane said...

Dara, I can only imagine the hilarious things you see/hear from folks about why the didn't pay taxes.

I am not a lawyer and even to me that argument sounded foolish. HAHA. You should write a book...

dara said...

Ryane: When I worked for the gov't, we'd see the strangest arguments. The problem is that no matter how many times the Courts rule against these wackos, there's always someone advising them to try again. For a fee, of course.

And according to Reuters, Wesley Snipes is hiding out in Namibia. Which has no extradition. It's a pity, though -- this would be a fun trial.

Anonymous said...

I just read the latest on Snipes at www.arrested.com. How can he return to Africa when he owes 12 million dollars in taxes?

dara said...

Dave: It's a criminal case, not a civil case, so the actual amount he owes is irrelevant. But he posted a $1 million bond. If he doesn't comply with the conditions of his release, he forfeits that money.

dara said...

Here's the article on it from CNN.