🚀 go-pugleaf

In <58tqpd$o38@cardinal2.Stanford.EDU>, jgadams@leland.Stanford.EDU (Joseph G. Adams) writes:
>
>Daniel J. Lavigne <taxfree@planeteer.com> wrote:
>
>>>Gee if income tax were legal why in 1991 did the 
>>>Supreme Court rule that if you honestly believed in 
>>>"not" paying income tax you cannot be sent to prison?
>
>That person was refering to Cheek v. United States, 498 U.S. 192 (1991).
>In that case, the Supreme Court held that a good faith misunderstanding
>of the tax laws may prevent the court from finding that the defendant
>acted willfully, which is necessary to convict the defendant of
>criminal tax evasion.

And it should never be forgotten that John Cheek won the battle but lost
the war, because he was retried and convicted the second time as well,
probably because he had spent so much time in litigation with the IRS 
and so much time studying the tax laws that it would have been almost
impossible for any jury to believe that he did not understand that the 
law required him to file a return.

So one of the ironies of the "Cheek" defense is that if you know enough
to know about it, you probably know too much to use it.

Dan Evans ************************
http://www.netaxs.com/~evansdb
This is not a legal opinion unless     
you agreed to pay for it. 
**********************************