from google:
Actor Snipes gets 3 years, apologizes for `costly mistakes'
Friday, April 25, 2008 6:36:01 AM
By TRAVIS REED
After haggling with revenue agents, criminal investigators and eventually U.S. prosecutors for almost a decade, Wesley Snipes....(snip)... was convicted of three counts of willfully failing to file returns, his trial was held by some as proof of victory for the tax protest movement. Snipes was acquitted of five other charges, including felony tax fraud and conspiracy, that would've exposed him to 13 more years in prison.
Criminal tax prosecutions are relatively rare -- usually the cases are handled in civil court, where the government has a lower burden of proof.
Snipes' attorneys argued the sentence was too stiff for a first-time offender convicted of three misdemeanors, and recommended he be given home detention and ordered to make public service announcements.
But U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges said Snipes exhibited a "history of contempt over a period of time" for U.S. tax laws.
"In my mind these are serious crimes, albeit misdemeanors," Hodges said.
The action star of the "Blade" trilogy, "White Men Can't Jump," "Jungle Fever" and other films hasn't filed a tax return since 1998, the government alleged. Snipes and the IRS still must determine how much he owes, plus interest and penalties. The government alleged Snipes made at least $13.8 million for the three years in question, owing at least $2.7 million in back taxes on them alone.
Snipes read aloud from a prepared apology, calling his actions "costly mistakes" but never mentioning the word "taxes." He said he was the victim of crooked advisers, a liability of wealth and celebrity that attract "wolves and jackals like flies are attracted to meat."
"I am an idealistic, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance," Snipes said.
please click the above link to read more, as snipes continues to blame others for his choices and his lawyers argue that he is being unfairly singled out because of his fame
i find this whole situaition very disappointing. i am watching our society fail, and people(or churches) that try and find ways to help ultra rich citizens get out of paying taxes are definitly going to be a part of the problem....and sorry, part of what comes with being famous is public scrutiny, and i am finally tired of this idea that you dont have resonsibility to your society as a highly visible, wealthy, well known american citizen
now, if while he was not paying his taxes, he put out good protest reasons, such as disagreeing with the iraq war (which didnt start until 2003 and snipes stopped paying his takes in 1998) that would be one thing, but...
oh, and as for any comments of snipes saying that he let people take advantage of him,douglas rosile, if you notice, no longer has a banking license, he lost it in 2006, and if nothing else, that should have set off the alarm bells.....
Song of the day:
1 comment:
I guess he can kiss his “stimulus” check goodbye.
I think they could vastly simplify the tax system by having a completely flat tax of say 2 or 3 percent of revenue. Individuals and corporations could have a standard deduction of say $40,000 and everything over that would be taxed at 2 or 3 percent. No deductions for interest, depreciation, cost of goods, salaries, etc. If GM, Boeing, etc were paying 2-3% of their revenue they’d actually be paying taxes instead of accountants and lawyers to find clever ways to avoid taxes. Our taxes would be simple, and we wouldn’t have to worry about audits. And, corporations could concentrate on making money instead of avoiding taxes. Something close to my heart is that the stock market would be more stable because every time a day trader flips a stock, the sale would be subject to tax.
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