Tax Lawyer's Blog

I wonder what convicted tax felon, Wesley Snipes, thinks about this story:

The ABA Journal’s Law News Now reports in Lawyer Pleads to Tax Misdemeanors; Feds Say He Didn’t File Tax Returns Since 1994 that,

A Mississippi attorney who allegedly hasn’t filed a federal tax return since 1994 has avoided a trial in the felony tax evasion case he initially faced by pleading guilty today to two misdemeanor counts of failing to file.

Marshall Sanders, 57, who practices in Vicksburg, agreed to cooperate with the Internal Revenue Service in determining his past-due taxes and pay restitution and penalties, reports the Fort Mills Times.

“Under Mississippi Bar Association rules, a felony conviction would have resulted in the loss of a state license to practice law,” the newspaper notes.

The government says Sanders grossed more than $2.3 million in 2001 and nearly $500,000 in 2002, reports the Clarion Ledger.

Sanders reportedly is a civil practitioner who earned an economics degree from Harvard University and graduated from Emory University School of Law.

No sentencing date has been set in the case, which is in the U.S. District Court in Jackson.

It is rare for the DOJ to pursue taxpayers criminally for failure to file their income tax returns; however, where the failure to file is also accompanied by the failure to pay more than $500,000 over a period of more than 10 years, it is rare for them not to do so.

I would like to find out more about why the government didn’t think they could win a felony conviction against Mr. Sanders. Or maybe they figured if they put him in jail they’d never get their money back.

I guess white men can “jump” after all.

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