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SNIPES TAX STRATEGY A CLM

October 03, 2007

Wesley Snipes is already paying a price for seeking tax advice in the wrong places. Mr. Snipes is awaiting trial on charges of attempting to evade millions of dollars of federal income taxes using tax protestor theories. While he awaits trial, he has had to surrender his passport. That is proving inconvenient:

Variety is reporting that Snipes has had to pass up the lead role in Spike Lee’s upcoming World War II drama, Miracle at St. Anna. Instead Derek Luke will take the lead. Luke is best known for playing the title role of Antwone Fisher, although more recently he’s been in Redford’s Lions for Lambs, which means he’s no stranger to military dramas.
Although the tax evasion is the easy joke, it actually really is the reason for Snipes having to pass on the potentially-career reviving role. Lee is filming his World War II drama in Italy and Snipes isn’t currently in a position to leave the country.

Mr. Snipes got his tax advice from Eddie Kahn, the handsome bolo-tied gentleman pictured above. Who is Mr. Kahn? Quatloos says:

Eddie Kahn of "American Rights Litigators" represents the Hee-Haw contingent of the tax protestor movement...Eddie caters to the dumbest of the dumb, and his theories for not paying taxes are thus the dumbest of the dumb. Eddie has claimed variously that he can't find the Form 1040, that the IRS was not created by Congress and apparently just materialized out of the blue, that the IRS doesn't have the power to collect taxes, that the United States doesn't actually include the states, but is actually limited to the District of Columbia, that all the money collected from taxes goes to the International Monetary Fund (Eddie doesn't say who pays for our aircraft carriers, but what the hey), and that so long as keep out of the Social Security Program that you'll never have to file taxes... It seems that if somebody has tried a theory, lost, and then gone to jail than Eddie will then take it and advocate it as gospel.

The Moral? Getting tax advice in the wrong places can be a career-limiting move, even if you are a star.

Tax Grrrl has more.

Tags: Eddie Kahn.Wesley Snipes.