Wesley Snipes And The Anti-Tax Movement

Wesley Snipes is charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and filing a false claim for a $7 million refund before he stopped paying taxes. The actor is also charged with failing to file tax returns for six years starting in 1999 and giving the government three worthless checks totaling $14 million to cover some taxes. If convicted, Snipes faces 16 years in federal prison. Freedom Democrats, a blog for libertarian Democrats, writes: "I've been following this story tangentially for awhile now, but it appears Wesley Snipes is set to directly take on the IRS over the contention that there is no legal justification for Americans to pay income taxes on wages earned. The so-called '861 position,' which was popularized in Aaaron Russo's film America: Freedom to Fascism, has been rejected by the courts in terms of invalidating the income tax, but in recent years tax resistors have been acquitted in criminal courts using this argument.

Although legal experts expect Snipes to be convicted, an acquittal could be devastating for the IRS."The commentary continues: "At one point, this case supposedly had reached a settlement. Although the NY Times speculates that Snipes is being motivated by an anti-government black supramecist [sic] sect, it's not entirely clear to me if Snipes' defense won't center around that he was the innocent victim of bad advice by tax professionals who ascribed to 861 and that his prosecution is racially motivated. Snipes has attempted a couple of times to get the trial moved to New York from Ocala, FL, asserting that he can't have a fair trial in the latter location. Snipes' legal team plans to bring Muhammad Ali, Spike Lee, Sylvester Stallone, and Woody Harrelson as witnesses. My thoughts on the matter is that I would love to see Snipes get an aquittal, but if I were him, I think I would have taken the deal. The 861 argument has always seemed pretty flimsy to me."