Wesley Snipes - Why?

I only really said it because I hate Denzel Washington.

He must represent something to people. I mean, Passenger 57 and Blade are pretty dumb, but why the hatred? Is he too "super black"?

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/snipestax1.html

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.

Despite the court rulings, juries have acquitted some prominent tax resisters in recent years, and failed prosecutions have encouraged others to join. Even when the government has failed to obtain convictions, it succeeded in collecting the taxes through civil enforcement.

J. J. MacNab, a Maryland insurance analyst who tracks people who deny they owe taxes and has testified before Congress about the movement, said that an acquittal of Mr. Snipes would be a severe setback for the I.R.S.

“He will get more press and attention than any other victory by the tax deniers, and the growth in new members will be exponential,” she said.

Mr. Snipes, 45, is charged with two felonies: conspiracy to defraud the government and filing a false claim for a $7 million refund (a claim for the year 1997, before he stopped paying taxes). He is also charged with failing to file tax returns for the six years starting in 1999. Prosecutors say they intend to show that Mr. Snipes moved tens of millions of untaxed dollars offshore and gave the government three worthless checks totaling $14 million to cover some taxes.

In court papers and interviews, Mr. Snipes says that he is not guilty and that he acted on the advice of two tax professionals. They are being tried alongside him and are promoters of the 861 position and other tax theories.

One is Douglas Rosile, who was stripped of his accounting license in 1997. The other is Eddie Kahn, who has served prison time for tax crimes. Both are under federal court order to stop promoting tax evasion, including the 861 position.

The lawyer representing Mr. Snipes at trial is Robert Bernhoft of Milwaukee, who has been barred by court order since 1999 from selling a program under which he said people could legally stop paying income taxes.

Mr. Snipes, who grew up in the Bronx, is best known for tough-guy roles in movies like “Blade,” “U.S. Marshals,” and “The Passenger,” but he also starred in films by Spike Lee (“Jungle Fever,” “Mo’ Better Blues”) and Ron Shelton (“White Men Can’t Jump”).

His involvement with the tax resistance movement may stem from his association with the Nuwaubians, a quasi-religious sect of black Americans who promote antigovernment theories and who set up a headquarters in Georgia in the early 1990s.

In 2000, Mr. Snipes sought a federal permit for a military training compound on land next to the Nuwaubian camp; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms rejected the request.

“Snipes is already drawing whole new demographics to the movement,” Ms. MacNab added. “Tax protesters used to be white, 50 or older, blue-collar, rural and often connected to racist movements, but Snipes is young, urban and famous.”

She and others said the movement got a boost in 2005 when a jury acquitted Joseph Banister, a former criminal investigator for the I.R.S., who used his acquittal as proof that his views on the tax law were correct. One problem with that case was that even though his co-defendant, Al Thompson of Lake Shasta, Calif., was acquitted of conspiracy in a separate trial, Mr. Thompson is serving six years in prison for failing to withhold taxes from his employees and turn the money over.

Federal prosecutors also failed to convict a Louisiana lawyer, Tom Cryer, who, like Mr. Snipes, said he sincerely believed that he was not required to pay taxes. Another resister, Robert Lawrence of Peoria, Ill., had his case dropped in 2006 after arguing that tax forms violate the federal Paperwork Reduction Act — a strategy that had been falling out of favor among tax opponents but has since gained new adherents. Both men were still liable for the taxes after their cases.

Prosecutors also failed to convict a FedEx pilot, Vernice Kuglin of Memphis, who said she wrote the I.R.S. asking what law makes her liable for taxes, but got no response. She later signed papers conceding she owed more than $600,000 in taxes, and last week her goods, including her 14-year-old vehicle, were auctioned in Memphis. Ms. Kuglin said that despite the court filing, she continues to believe that she does not owe taxes.

Tax specialists and lawyers say that the Snipes case hinges on whether he can persuade jurors that he sincerely believed that he did not have to pay taxes, while prosecutors will argue that he was just trying to avoid them. The Supreme Court has ruled that people can make such an argument, but two leading defense lawyers said that Mr. Snipes might have a hard time using it as a defense.

Michael Louis Minns, a Houston lawyer who has defended and won acquittals for tax protesters, said that the three bad checks that Mr. Snipes sent the government to cover $14 million of taxes would seem to destroy a defense based on that argument.

“You can win acquittal with a good-faith defense that you sincerely believed you do not have to pay taxes,” Mr. Minns said. “But not if you make inconsistent claims.”

William Cohan, a lawyer in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., who also represents tax opponents, said another hurdle is the refund claim form signed by Mr. Snipes. The signature statement, or jurat, was altered so that instead of saying it was signed under penalty of perjury, the word “no” was inserted before “penalty.”

“That’s just devastating because if you sincerely believe you are not required to pay taxes, why would you alter the jurat?” Mr. Cohan said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/business/14tax.html

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/14/business/14tax.190.jpg

oh snipes what u doin?

Wesley Pipes

His involvement with the tax resistance movement may stem from his association with the Nuwaubians, a quasi-religious sect of black Americans who promote antigovernment theories and who set up a headquarters in Georgia in the early 1990s.

In 2000, Mr. Snipes sought a federal permit for a military training compound on land next to the Nuwaubian camp; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms rejected the request.

OK they almost had me goin there

Awaiting his appearance on Coast to Coast AM to blather on about how we don't have to pay taxes...

i love tax protesters. they're so much more fun than plain old tax cheats.

wesley snipes - how?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080201/ap_en_mo/snipes_tax_trial

The actor was convicted on three misdemeanor charges of failing to file tax returns or to pay taxes in the mixed verdict. He faces up to three years in prison.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/01/us/02snipes01_337.jpg

he grew hair and now looks like scottie pippen

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7366211.stm

Got the maximum of three years.

damn

So unless my lawyers can get an appeal together soon, I guess this is goodbye for a while guys.

oh great, they'll be all abuzz over this on coast to coast for the next week

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yzjWXduLPjs

"SIT your five dollar ass down before I make change!"

Great post-pub viewing.

you know, I'm all for making rich people serve the same kinda time that anybody else'd serve for tax evasion, but something about three years for failing to file kinda stinks - did he not offer a mea culpa and try to file late or anything?

If we can't enforce the tax code, we cede the republic to anarchy.

He'll serve 1 year in a Hilton style prison.

Ironically enough, paid for with tax dollars.

lol

http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/images7/marsh.jpg

Isn't he the blackest man in Hollywood?

^^^ oops i thought this was about why he existed...

lol no post edits here you sillypants

I always get Snipes mixed up with Wesley Willis.

"I WHUPPED WOODY'S ASSSSSS!"

did he not offer a mea culpa and try to file late or anything?

he willfully evaded by putting his money into overseas accounts and subscribes to the 'income tax is not valid because it wasn't ratified' bullshit, so, uh, no

Yeah the bit upthread of William Cohan, a lawyer in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., who also represents tax opponents, said another hurdle is the refund claim form signed by Mr. Snipes. The signature statement, or jurat, was altered so that instead of saying it was signed under penalty of perjury, the word “no” was inserted before “penalty.” is kind of damning, really.

lol reading about "tax protesters" on wikipedia

"In another Seventh Circuit case, the Court observed:

Some people believe with great fervor preposterous things that just happen to coincide with their self-interest. “Tax protesters” have convinced themselves that wages are not income, that only gold is money, that the Sixteenth Amendment is unconstitutional, and so on. these beliefs all lead — so tax protesters think — to the elimination of their obligation to pay taxes."

I think the important question here is: who will play Wesley Snipes in The Wesley Snipes Story?

robert downey jr

http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/20080416/425.downey.parademag.041608.jpgp

I could see Robert Downey playing a middle-aged Sean Connery these days.

http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/20080416/425.downey.parademag.041608.jpg

Hey Wesley, I still believe in you.

: (

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7177/cokeintoilet.jpg

How was he able to delay this sentence for more than two years? $$$ ?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101119/en_nm/us_snipes_7

can't buy him love, tho

xp - he had appealed and asked for a new trial. He's pretty much being made an example of for this.

Rules of the game:

1) you get a trial

2) if it goes against you, you may appeal;

3) if the appeal fails, you may ask for another trial only if you can produce persuasive new evidence that casts the outcome of the first trial into considerable doubt

4) if the "new" evidence is totally lame and doesn't persuade a judge, you are SOL.

Snipes is not being made an example of. The kind of legal manuevering that happens after step 1 usually happens with the defendent in jail. He was allowed to remain out of jail, pending appeal. He got very lenient treatment.

oh, that's not at all what I meant by "he is being made an example of" -- i meant that the IRS is pretty stoked that someone of his celebrity status got nailed for this, because his arguments over why he shouldn't pay taxes have been on the IRS' "dirty dozen" list for years, and they're pretty much *rdme* whenever they encounter anyone trying to pull this.

Seems like the IRS didn't have to do any of the "making" for this example of tax-refusal stupidity. Snipes did all their work for them. All they had to do was pluck the ripe fruit that practically fell into their hands.

they do send out press releases, you know.

I presume the media beast disdains most of the fodder the IRS tosses their way via press release. They ate up Snipes because he suited their tastes, not because the IRS was so canny at setting him up as a fall guy.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B1LlYh6iKqs/TBx56yE0EuI/AAAAAAAACFo/1GmC0kN2KNg/s400/wesley-snipes.jpg

In The Wesley Snipes Story, there will be the classic jailhouse scene of a guy, at Wesley's release, giving him a box containing this outfit.

xxp - i'm not saying that the IRS set him up as a fall guy - I'm saying that he is a great example for the IRS' purposes of publicizing the stupidity and bullshit of tax protesters' arguments.

I agree. Confusion over the phrasing 'making an example of' rather than 'using as an example of'.

"Wesley Snipes - Why?" is a great thread title

Watched Rising Sun last night, the kind of junky movie that often looks better when I go back years later. I think in this case it looked even worse. Found the plot incomprehensible. Sean Connery was as self-parodic as on that SNL Jeopardy skit, ditto Ray Wise doing Leland Palmer shtick. Snipes was better, but he had my favourite bad line towards the end: "I don't lose my temper" really coolly, approximately 30 minutes after a scene where he really lost his temper.

michael crichton was really at his best tackling the issues of the day: yellow terror, misandry, dinosaurs.

funny you should mention that movie, clemz, I just read rosenbaum's mildly positive take on it yesterday. do I remember the movie right in that keitel disappears from the movie after being played up as a major character?

Honestly don't know what Rosenbaum saw in it, other than a certain loopiness, and that it's Phil Kauffman (who made one film I love)--if you can post a link, I'd be interested in reading that. Keitel indeed disappears with about 10-15 minutes to go; Sean Connery applies some kind of Japanese pressure-point move on him while he's sitting in the front seat of a car, he's tips over sideways, and that's it, no more chief of police (or whatever he was). Don't think anyone acknowledges this for the rest of the movie.