Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Tax Man Cometh


I like his movies in general. After this trial will he be availible to make more?
Let me tell you how it will be; There's one for you, nineteen for me.
'Cause I’m the taxman, Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small, Be thankful I don't take it all. 'Cause I’m the taxman, Yeah, I’m the taxman.

Bet he'll pay his taxes after this.






Wesley Snipes to Go on Trial in Tax Case
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

From 1999 to 2004, the actor Wesley Snipes earned $38 million appearing in more than half a dozen movies, including two sequels to his popular vampire thriller “Blade.”
The taxes he paid in the same period? Zero.



But unlike other celebrities who find themselves on the wrong side of the Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Snipes has a flamboyant explanation: he argues that he is not actually required to pay taxes.



Mr. Snipes, who is scheduled to go on trial Monday in Ocala, Fla., has become an unlikely public face for the antitax movement, whose members maintain that Americans are not obligated to pay income taxes and that the government extracts taxes from its citizens illegally.



His trial has become the most prominent income tax prosecution since the 1989 conviction of the billionaire New York hotelier, Leona Helmsley, who went to prison for improperly billing personal expenses to her business.



Tax deniers maintain that the law only appears to require payment of taxes. All their theories have been rejected by the courts, including the one invoked by Mr. Snipes, which is known as the 861 position, after a section of the federal tax code.



Adherents say a regulation applying the 861 provision does not list wages as taxable, though it does say that “compensation for services” is taxable. The courts have uniformly rejected all such theories, and eight people have been sentenced to prison after not paying taxes based on the 861 argument.