You can always count on the tax protest movement to come up with hairbrained legal arguments. From arguing the 16th Amendment was never properly ratified (it was) to arguing that the definition of income in the Internal Revenue Code doesn’t include wages (it does), it’s always entertaining to read about them. This one, though, takes the cake:
WORCESTER, Mass. –A 74-year-old Korean War veteran was sentenced Thursday to three months in prison for tax evasion, after claiming unsuccessfully that Massachusetts was its own country and not subject to federal taxes.
Richard Labombard, of Leominster, also was sentenced in U.S. District Court to two years of supervised release and a $4,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston. During the sentencing, Judge F. Dennis Saylor reminded Labombard, who served in the Army from 1951-71, that the military relies on taxpayer dollars and called his actions “insulting.”
Labombard was convicted in May of four counts of tax evasion.
Prosecutors said he filed nonresident tax returns in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2001, claiming he was not a citizen of the United States, but of the country of Massachusetts. Labombard also failed to include wages he earned in the state and overstated the amount withheld from his military pension for tax purposes, the government said.
Well, I’m sure there are plenty of people in American who wish that Massachusetts was an independent country. If nothing else, it would keep Ted Kennedy out of the Senate. Nonetheless, it’s a nonsense argument and Labombard deserves to be punished for even making it.
Apparently, though, he wasn’t making it on his own:
A message left by The Associated Press Thursday after hours for Labombard’s attorney was not immediately returned.
Can anyone say Rule 11 sanctions ?
