Mr. Pesci's production company didn't use EFTPS, and the penalties were upheld.
Meanwhile, actor Nicolas Cage will be fighting the IRS in Tax Court. The TaxProf Blog quotes a story in Forbes:
The IRS says movie star Nicolas Cage used a company he owns to wrongly write off $3.3 million in personal expenses, including limos, meals, gifts, travel and his Gulfstream 1159A turbojet. ... The feds hit Cage both ways, denying Saturn a deduction for the disputed expenses while taxing Cage individually on the perks as salary and "constructive dividends."
Cage's business manager, Samuel J. Levin, says in an e-mail that the expenses were proper as "customary in the entertainment industry" and were partly based on the actor's "security needs."
Mr. Cage's Tax Court case will probably not be heard for many months, with a decision possible in 2009.