Azteclady Speaks: Does that seem right to you?
Monday, May 5, 2008Posted in: Azteclady Speaks
Tags:Absurdity, Death and Taxes, IRS
Is it just me, or is Wesley Snipes’ conviction–and three years sentence–the result of a petty swipe by IRS?
See, they couldn’t get him for the big bucks–and I’m not saying he didn’t deserve to pay some, ’cause c’mon, there’s no way he didn’t know he was supposed to pay taxes. Unless he lived in a cave somewhere in the desert for a decade or so. Which, since he made a *cough* decently sized *cough* fortune with his films, we can rule out, no?
So, he knew he had to file and pay taxes, and he didn’t. Still, he’s got good lawyers, and got off on the felonies. The IRS response: three years in jail for the minor stuff.
And me, I just wonder how it makes sense to spend tax money keeping him in low security, high comfort jail for three years for *drum roll* not paying tax money to the government.
Of course, Mr Snipes is appealing the sentence, which means his lawyers get richer while the justice system spends more tax money.
If anyone can make sense of this, please edumacate me.
Kristie(J)
May 5
12:17 pm
I was floored to when I heard his sentence. As someone who didn’t file income taxes for four years (and I better not get started on that *g* – there is a reason I didn’t) I was horrified by the sentence.
Shiloh Walker
May 5
12:53 pm
Apparently I’m living in a cave…I knew nothing about any of this. Snipes, I mean, not taxes. Sadly, I know that fact of life.
katiebabs
May 5
1:36 pm
I hear Snipes gave the IRS $5 million and that still wasn’t enough. Why not have him pay double his fine or some other penalty?
Karen Scott
May 5
1:50 pm
How long did Martha Stewart get?
Angelle
May 5
1:57 pm
I think the IRS wants to set an example. He had to pay because he got caught. If he just paid fines and that was all, there might be other RICH people who may try to do the same.
BTW — The U.S. tax law forces all its citizens, regardless of where they live, to pay U.S. income taxes (earned income, capital gains, etc.), and sometimes social security taxes. When my BF (another American) asked them why he has to file when he doesn’t owe anything, they told him if he doesn’t file they won’t know that he doesn’t owe, so he has to file. *shaking head*
Anne
May 5
2:21 pm
I completely disagree with you. I think if it were possible he should have gotten more jail time. I mean, tax evasion for nearly a decade totaling $15 million and then when he finds out that the IRS is after him he stays out of the country for months. No, I think he got off easy. It could have been and should have been much worse. Just because he’s a celeb doesn’t mean he should get any preferential treatment as I think the average everyday Joe would have gotten worse because he wouldn’t have been able to afford Snipes’ attorneys who got him Snipes was acquitted of five other counts in February, including two felonies.
AztecLady
May 5
2:45 pm
Anne, I’m not saying he should have gotten off scoot free. Seriously, that’s not what I’m saying.
What I am saying is that it doesn’t make sense (to me) to spend more money on his so-called punishment (from keeping him safe–which they will do, because he is a celebrity–to the legal costs–which will keep mounting, ’cause he is a celebrity with the money to drag this out ’till close to Judgment Day) than whatever he paid back.
As far as I’m concerned, if they didn’t get him for the felonies, then getting him to pay more money would have made more sense than jail time.
Teddypig
May 5
4:08 pm
He not only did not pay he also argued he did not have to pay taxes and then when he realized that was not going to work he tried to get out of paying the fines they levied on his stupid ass.
He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Teddypig
May 5
4:12 pm
I just finished fixing several years of back tax issues and yeah it sucked big big big time but you still do it.
To get as far into legal matters like he did means he not only knew he was doing something wrong but he simply ignored it and thought because he was a STAR he would get away with it. Entitlement is the new addiction.
AztecLady
May 5
4:24 pm
Teddy, I don’t think entitlement is a new fad, really. We just hear more about it these days–but that holds true about pretty much everything, no? What with teh instawebs and stuff.
Robin
May 5
5:32 pm
I definitely think there is a trend toward “making an example” out of celebrities, and it may be, in part, a byproduct of the extra visibility they now have via the Internet and all the reality television, etc. I definitely think FAME is the new addiction (i.e. celebrity is no longer about celebrating talent and accomplishment).
I don’t know how I feel about Snipes’s sentence, but it does frustrate me how much of the tax burden the middle class bears. I may be in a lower tax bracket than Snipes, but because of his income overall, the tax bite doesn’t hurt him nearly as much as it does me. So as I’m dutifully paying all my taxes (and it always staggers me how much of my check IS paid in taxes), and as the cost of groceries and gas and such continues to rise, wealthy folks like Snipes are giving the big f-u to the rest of the taxpayers (not just the government), and then f-u again when the feds track him down and demand payment. And I know I’m still a lot luckier than soooooo many people, because I am still earning a paycheck to tax. And when our economy continues to stagger, $15 million (from one taxpayer) is no small amount of money. If Snipes needed more tax write-offs, maybe he could have started a program to help keep all those economically and educationally impoverished young black men out of prison for the non-violent, often drug-related offenses that get them there. Because I’m way more frustrated that our system is so screwed up as to keep so many young men and women in prison on taxpayer money (rather than educating and employing them) than I am about Snipes’s sentence. If Snipes going to prison makes another wealthy person pay up, then maybe it will at least be cost effective. Like I said, I haven’t made my peace with that part yet.
Anon76
May 5
6:02 pm
What is Snipe’s position on not paying taxes? Just, “I don’t want to?”
Give me a reason, bub, then I might back you.
Schmucks like me are paying for your jail time, now tell me why.
DS
May 5
6:48 pm
Unless things have changed a great deal since the mid 80’s the only way he could get his case into Federal Court was to pay what they said he owed. Otherwise he would have been in Tax Court and there he would have fared a lot worse.
Juries are always more sympathetic to tax payers than Tax Court judges who sit without juries.
Just another reason why it pays to have money in the US.
kirsten saell
May 5
7:15 pm
Never realized what a good actor the guy was, to play characters of average intelligence when he’s obviously dumb as a freaking post…
veinglory
May 5
8:05 pm
That’s the law, those are the penalties. He thought he was too rich to pay taxes and fought it for years while idiots like me were eating ramen noodles and giving our share to support roads, school and food stamps. I for one think the sentence was about right, especially after seeing some of his comments about why he thought he shouldn’t have to pay any taxes. Jeez.
Eve Vaughn
May 5
9:06 pm
I think he’s probably going to jail because he was so uncooperative from the get go. If I’m not mistaken, his original defense was, and this is paraphrasing, “I don’t owe taxes because it was illegal for the government to tax me in the first place because they still owe me my forty acres and a mule” Then the schmuck hightailed out the country and didn’t come back for several months until they threatened to extradite him. After that he gives the IRS shit for the amount he’s fined. So basically he’s being sentenced to three years for not only paying his taxes but for basically being an asshole.
Shayne
May 5
10:08 pm
Yeah, I’m gonna say just about right.
With that kind of money, why wouldn’t you pay your taxes? Come on. I paid it on my royalties which is a damn sight less than his 15 mil.
AztecLady
May 5
10:33 pm
So.
I’m not saying he shouldn’t have paid.
‘Cause he sure as hell should have.
I’m not saying he shouldn’t pay now.
‘Cause I think he should pay whatever he didn’t and about half as much interest.
What I’m saying that the sentence–and the ensuing legal battle, and the jail time if and when it comes–will cost the government more money than what they have gotten so far out of Ms Snipes.
That is what doesn’t make sense to me.
Shayne
May 5
10:56 pm
AztecLady,
It would be Mr. Snipes. *L* Yes and no. It’s a way of sending the message to others that if you’re not paying your taxes, we’ll catch up with you.
Also I believe the losing party can be charged the cost of the trial. But I’m no legal eagle. I believe it’s more of a message thing.
DS
May 5
11:12 pm
When someone is punished by the legal system there is both a specific deterrence effect–that person is (supposedly) deterred from doing the illegal action again–and a general deterrence effect– other people hear about it and are deterred because of the punishment the person received. If Joe Blow or Joetta Blow is convicted of failure to file taxes we would not be talking about this now. But it’s Wesley Snipes!
If only a fine is levied– well he has a lot of money and the potential to make more. Time is finite though.
The current government push is to convict high profile Tax Deniers like Snipes and that guy in Minnesota as well as their advisers and the other people who aided them and not just take their money but also their time. They hope that by doing this they will deter all the Joe or Joetta Blows from joining the Deniers. If it works then the cost of keeping Snipes for three years would be worth it.
And minimum security federal penitentiaries aren’t what they used to be. I’ve been inside the one where Pete Rose was incarcerated. The mid 1990’s it had the ambiance of a college Student Union. Went back last year and security was much stricter and a lot of the amenities were gone. (No, I wasn’t an inmate.)
Tracy
May 6
12:08 am
Eve Vaughn said:
bwahahahahahaha best line here. I love it!!