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TAXPAYER OF THE YEAR 2007: THE POLLS ARE OPEN!

December 04, 2007

It's time, ladies and gentlemen, for our annual recognition of a taxpayer who has found a way to stand out in world of taxes. The nomination criteria is flexible; celebrity helps, but is not requires. So without further ado, let the voting begin!

The nominees and their tax-related fame are outlined below.

Professional psychic David Guardino (Age 64, 366 lbs.) makes the cut for a creative way to to get a judge to show mercy at sentencing: by showing a little lot of leg.

Anthony Vincent Miller, formerly of Pittsburgh, stood out from the crowd by washing his hands of federal tax fraud charges using an "obsessive-compulsive disorder" defense.

Families Against Government Slavery gets nominated based on their creative acronym.

Militant Vegan Law Professor Anna E. Charlton gets nominated for her "ignore it and maybe it will go away" approach to a $27,595,308 balance due notice.

Joseph Francis is one of our celebrity nominees. The founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" empire awaits trial on tax charges, including an allegation that he had a $3.7 million home built for himself in Mexico and deducted it as a business expense.

Attorney Sherrel Jones gets an award for trying to take a $294,877 charitable deduction for donating his papers from his work defending terror-bomber Timothy McVeigh. The workpapers were largely photocopies of the government's evidence. His deduction fared as well in court as McVeigh.

Actor Wesley Snipes, our runner-up last year, kept his name in the tax news by firing his legal crew and hiring the lawyer who won acquittals for tax-protest figures Joe Bannister and Vernice Kuglin. He also argues that he is being selectively prosecuted, apparently for evading taxes while black.

Black-Hawk Sanders is nominated for perhaps the most far-fetched excuse for not paing his taxes - namely a belief that his is descended from "Native American Moors" who came to America from Africa over an ancient land bridge, which somehow is supposed to make him tax-exempt.

Creed J. Pearson gets the old college try nomination for offering to settle his tax liabilities by the taxes he could assess by auditing the Scientologists.

Finally, we have to include Ron Isley. The R&B star, sentenced last year to 37 months in prison for tax evasion, was the subject of a campaign for a Presidential pardon. The heat is on....

Vote daily, early and often!

Tags: taxpayer of the year - 2007.

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