Tuesday, May 4, 2004

TaxProf Blog typically does not comment on tax protester litigation, but “Tax Honesty” leader Richard Simkanin’s recent argument to a federal district judge, recounted on the Roth CPA Blog, recently caught my eye:

Simkanin, 59, told U.S. District Judge John McBryde that after spending thousands of hours studying federal tax laws, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, he concluded that he did not agree with the tax laws.

If that was not enough, his lawyer chimed in with this:

He has a sincere, well-thought-out position that is at odds with the government position. Reasonable people disagree about the tax laws. My client is an American citizen who, like Thoreau, walked to the beat of a different drummer.

Of course, Thoreau never took out a full page ad in USA Today denouncing the federal tax law. The Department of Justice and the jury (which found Simkanin guilty of 10 counts of wilful failure to collect, account for and pay over taxes due; 15 counts of making false claims against the United States; and 4 counts of failure to file individual income tax returns) were unpersuaded by these arguments, as was the district judge:

But McBryde had heard enough. Going above federal sentencing guidelines, McBryde sentenced Simkanin to seven years in prison and ordered him to pay $302,000 in restitution to the government. Sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of 41 months to 51 months.

For more on the Simkanin trial, see here, here, here, and here.