Channing Phillips, spokesman for the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney's Office, acknowledged in a phone interview with Tax Analysts that prosecutors had mistakenly listed the wrong statute in the agreement. The judge still may have been able to order restitution as a condition of probation, but prosecutors included no probation clause.Apparently the civil recovery channel is still open to the IRS, but one wonders whether there may be additional U.S. Attorneys who need to be fired. Oddest detail of all: Anderson was represented by a public defender!
Thursday, March 29, 2007
A $100 million oversight
Walter C. Anderson pled guilty to fraudulently evading $100 million in income taxes, the largest individual tax cheating in history. Tax Notes Today ($) now reports that, although Anderson has received a nine-year prison term, restitution of the tax money can't be ordered "thanks to sloppy work from Justice Department prosecutors."
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1 comment:
"This is a serious crime, and it requires a serious punishment," [U.S. District Judge] Friedman said. "It is taking money from taxpayers."
The judge has it backwards. The state is taking the money from Anderson, not vice versa. Taxes are theft of the wealth you create - the money you earn is not "stolen" from anyone. Pointing out the failings of a public school system that spends more money on students than any other state in the U.S., yet gets the lowest scores only underlines the incompetence of socialized education.
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