United States v. Smith, 73-1961 to 73-1963.
| Decision Date | 17 December 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 73-1961 to 73-1963.,73-1961 to 73-1963. |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William R. SMITH, Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Jack H. WRIGHT, Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Billy R. POULSEN, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
William R. Smith, in pro. per.
Jack H. Wright, in pro. per.
Billy R. Poulsen, in pro. per.
Thomas C. Frost, Asst. U. S. Atty. (argued), Sidney E. Smith, U. S. Atty., Boise, Idaho, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before CARTER and GOODWIN, Circuit Judges, and EAST,* District Judge.
Defendants appeal from a 30-day jail sentence and a fine of $250 following conviction of violating 26 U.S.C. § 7205, which makes it a misdemeanor willfully to supply false information upon an Internal Revenue Service form.
Defendants, protesting the withholding of income tax from the wages of workmen, elected to declare a sufficient number of nonexistent dependents to make certain that no taxes would be withheld. One defendant filed a W-4 form claiming 17 dependents, the others claimed 10 each. All three sent letters to the Internal Revenue Service in which they stated that they had inflated their number of dependents to prevent their wages from being illegally seized.
Defendants now contend that they were entitled to engage in these theatrics because they had no "intent to defraud." In a misdemeanor prosecution, however, the government need not prove fraud, loss of revenue, or reliance by the government. The offense is made out when a person required by law to complete and file a W-4 intentionally uses the form to supply false information. United States v. Malinowski, 472 F.2d 850 (3rd Cir. 1973).
Our system of self-assessment and concurrent payment of taxes as income is earned cannot survive if every taxpayer is permitted to formulate his own rules. Misdemeanor penalties were provided by Congress with the knowledge that for certain types of forbidden behavior, even though criminal conduct is not present, a mild deterrent and the certainty of punishment are vital to the system. The defendants are free to express their political discontent in other ways. When they elected to defy the tax laws, they assumed the burden of the penalties provided by those laws.
The defendants have represented themselves in this court and in the district court. None has legal...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
U.S. v. Snider
...employer and IRS alike as to the amount properly to be withheld. A similar possibility exists under the facts of United States v. Smith, 487 F.2d 329 (9th Cir. 1973), where defendants claimed 10, 10, and 17 exemptions respectively. A claim of '3 billion,' on the other hand, could deceive no......
-
U.S. v. Bass
...Id. at 472 (citing, inter alia, United States v. Johnson, 576 F.2d 1331, 1332 (8th Cir.1978) (per curiam); United States v. Smith, 487 F.2d 329, 330 (9th Cir.1973) (per curiam), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 989, 94 S.Ct. 2396, 40 L.Ed.2d 767 (1974)). See also United States v. Ferguson, 615 F.Supp......
-
U.S. v. Kelley, 75-2820
...a defense to a violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7205 when a taxpayer intentionally makes a false statement on a W-4E form. United States v. Smith, 487 F.2d 329 (9th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 989, 94 S.Ct. 2396, 40 L.Ed.2d 767 (1974). Furthermore, there was ample evidence that Kelley intent......
-
United States v. Hawk, 73-2800.
...407 F.2d 189, 195 (5th Cir.), petition for cert. dismissed, 395 U.S. 972, 89 S.Ct. 2133, 23 L.Ed.2d 777 (1969) ; cf. United States v. Smith, 487 F.2d 329 (9th Cir. 1973) ; Haskell v. United States, 241 F.2d 790, 794 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 354 U.S. 921, 77 S.Ct. 1379, 1 L.Ed.2d 1436 (195......