Personal Budget Training: Death and Taxes

Friday, April 25, 2008

Death and Taxes

In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin

Just ask Wesley Snipes about that.

Wesley Snipes was jailed for three years last night for tax evasion despite pleas for his freedom from some famous friends. He was given the maximum sentence from a judge in Florida, for dodging more than $15 million in federal income taxes on earnings.

In a lengthy memo to the court calling for the maximum 36-month sentence, prosecutors said Snipes engaged in a decade-long campaign of criminal tax conduct combining brazen defiance with insidious concealment that amounted to a $15 million evasion and $41 million in "intended harm" to the US Treasury.

Before the sentencing, the actor asked the court to show mercy and offered three checks totaling $5 million as a gesture of good will.

Federal prosecutors diverted the checks to the U.S. Treasury, which accepted the payment,but it wasn't enough.

The judge told Snipes that he will not have to surrender to custody immediately but must report to prison near his home in New Jersey at a later date.

Labels: tax evasion, Wesley Snipes