Wesley Snipes sent an email over the weekend to Scott Maxwell, a columnist at the Orlando Sentinel. Maxwell put the highlights of Snipes’ email in his column; the full, unedited email is in his blog. It makes interesting reading for a tax professional.
Snipes first notes, “Like the situation in New York, and Florida , I know this has more to do with a few individuals with access to power, making moves; trying to move up!; and less with some alleged crime against the whole population of the United States of America…It appears I’m to be the scapegoat….”
Given that Snipes is accused of fraudulently claiming refunds of $12 million, it would appear to my eyes that it’s a rather substantial alleged crime against the United States.
Snipes continues, “To be clear, I have no current relationship with Mr. Kahn and haven’t for more than four or five years. I never met Rosile and we never received the “refunds” requested. NOT ONE SINGLE DIME; did the IRS or the Treasury ever send ME.” [emphasis in original]
Well, there’s a problem with Snipes’ denial; he stands accused of fraudulently claiming refunds of $12 million. You don’t actually have to receive the refund in order to commit this crime.
Snipes goes on in his email to cite a website that has two links regarding the Snipes case. The first is to The Smoking Gun and his indictment; the second is to a website that purportedly shows that most income isn’t taxable.
It’s a pity that the truth is almost the exact opposite: almost all income is taxable in the United States. We wrote about this in a previous Snipes post, but we’ll reproduce it again:
“Thus, citizens of the United States generally also are taxed on income earned outside the geographical boundaries of the United States unless they prove that the income is specifically exempted. E.g., sec. 61(a); Cook v. Tait, 265 U.S. 47, 54, 56 (1924).” [From Specking, et. al., v. Commissioner, 117 T.C. No. 9]
The one piece of good news is that Snipes, according to the email, does plan on returning to face the charges. He also is planning on getting good counsel. That looks like a very good idea, as no deal has been done. “There is no deal that has been worked out,” U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Steve Cole told the Associated Press on Monday. “The only thing we have discussed is coming back to face the charges.”
Tags: Snipes