Even Movie Stars Fall For Tax Scams

I don't know anything about the politics of Wesley Snipes; whether he shares the standard Hollywood love of big expensive government or not. However, he shares the desire most of us have to personally pay no income taxes.

He has taken his dislike of taxes to an illegal extreme by relying on one of the bogus tax protestor arguments; that only income from foreign corporations is subject to tax. The Smoking Gun has obtained a copy of the amended tax return (1040X) Snipes filed, based on the work of a tax scamster in Florida, Douglas Rosile, requesting a refund of all of the $7,360,755 that he paid in Federal income tax for 1997.

Filing such a bogus income tax return is a crime and is subject to serious penalties, both on the preparer and on the taxpayer. However, since movie stars aren't held to the same legal standards as the rest of us, I doubt if Snipes will be prosecuted. He just won't be receiving that big refund he asked for.

Snipes better not have paid that scam preparer up front. Those crooks usually charge a percentage of the taxes they claim they are recovering. Since Mr. Rosile will probably be heading off to the old gray bar hotel, he won't be in any shape to refund his fee to Snipes.

KMK
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 5/23/2002 09:31:00 PM Send this post: