Wesley Snipes Ordered to Prison
Wesley Snipes Ordered to Prison for 3 Years for Failing to File as Many Tax Returns
Wesley Snipes–star of the “Blade” trilogy, Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever,” and the cult classic “To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Love Julie Newmar”–was ordered today to begin serving a three year sentence by US District Judge William Terrell Hodges in Ocala, Florida. Snipes was convicted on February 1, 2008 of three counts of willfully failing to file income tax returns for tax years 1999, 2000, and 2001, and was sentenced to three years imprisonment on May 1, 2008. The sentence amounts to one year of prison for every year Snipes failed to file a tax return. Snipes appealed the conviction and managed to stay out of prison until today.
We understand the seriousness of having unfiled tax returns, particularly if the IRS believes a taxpayer has failed to file willingly. The government can and will, as illustrated in the Snipes case, send the offender to jail. It is our belief that Wesley Snipes acted on bad advice from others who thought they could get around the US taxing system and the IRS. This serves as yet another example of how most tax avoidance schemes end–with convictions, fines, and sentencing. We have repeatedly encouraged delinquent taxpayers to file unfiled tax returns to regain compliance and we will continue to do so.
We have watched the Wesley Snipes trial, sentencing, and appeals with a great deal of interest. While we understand the law must be carried out, we can’t help but empathize with Snipes’ position, which is not so dissimilar from that of many taxpayers who hire us. The lesson? Sometimes your mistakes can land you in prison.
We sincerely hope the best for Wesley Snipes. Admittedly, we hope he is perceived by the prison population as Blade while serving his sentence and not as Noxeema Jackson. Either way, we do not envy his position.
Blade and Noxeema--Characters of Wesley Snipes
If you have unfiled tax returns, get them filed now. The Snipes case serves as a reminder to all taxpayers that the IRS can and will seek imprisonment for delinquent filers. If you need help filing your past-due tax returns, contact us today. We can help.
About Tax Masters
Houston based Tax Masters has served tens of thousands of clients and had incredible success with settling federal tax debt, defending clients in audit, setting up monthly IRS payment plans, and filing past-due tax returns.
Thanks for your comment. However, we think you may have us confused with someone else. We do not advise people on tax avoidance strategies. TaxMasters exists to help delinquent taxpayers regain complaince with the IRS and find a way to pay what they owe the government. Sometimes this means a payment plan, sometimes it means a settlement, and sometimes it means filing for a temporarily uncollectable status. Every case is different, but some things never change. The non-changeables include:
o) If you can afford to pay your tax liability or have assets you can sell to pay it, you will likely have to pay the full amount of your tax debt
o) The IRS will not negotiate with a taxpayer concerning tax debt until he or she has filed all delinquent tax returns and is in complaince with current year payments and filings
TaxMasters believes that everyone should pay their fair share of taxes. But we also believe you should pay only what you owe. We do not make recommendations on future year filings, but rather assist those in need of regaining compliance after they made mistakes in the past with filing or paying taxes.
Best of luck.
How does Tax Masters represnts taxpayers with the IRS if you have the following disclaimer: ©2009 Tax Masters (*This firm is not a CPA firm. This firm is not a law firm.)
If you are not an attorney or a CPA what license do you have Patrick?
Thanks for your comment, Dude.
Patrick Cox is a licensed CPA. TaxMasters employs CPA’s, attorneys, Enrolled Agents, consultants, and former IRS employees. We do not function as a CPA firm or as a law firm because the services we provide help taxpayers who have already made mistakes, not those taxpayers who are planning for the future or who need their current tax return filed. We operate under the provisions of the 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act, developed by Congress and signed into law by Bill Clinton to combat the well-chronicled mistreatment of taxpayers by the IRS. Also known as RRA ’98, this piece of legislation included a Taxpayer Bill of Rights. One of these rights enables taxpayers to hire an advocate to represent them before the IRS. Before the creation of the Enrolled Agent designation, taxpayers either had to represent themselves, coordinate the services of a tax preparer, tax lawyer, and CPA, or overpay a tax lawyer or CPA to handle their case. As you can imagine, there are more than a few CPA’s and tax attorneys who raise their noses at handling cases they see as being “beneath” them.
While CPAs and tax lawyers provide valuable services, they tend to focus on specific areas. TaxMasters provides a robust set of services with a wide variety of skill-sets that includes everything you might need to confront your tax problem, from tax preparers to attorneys, to Enrolled Agents, to financial analysts, all the way down to dedicated customer service specialists. By way of example, we handle more IRS audits in a week than most CPA’s will handle in their entire career. When you choose TaxMasters, you choose a firm of tax professionals with broad skill sets and significant experience.
RRA ’98 extended the protections only the rich could afford to Americans with lower incomes. That’s what led to TaxMasters entering and helping to pioneer the tax representation industry. TaxMasters is committed to helping hard-working Americans like you who need help filing back tax returns, surviving an IRS audit, and finding the least-intrusive ways to pay or settle significant tax debt.
Thanks for the opportunity to explain. Call us if you need us.