Taxable Talk

Fail, fail again.

Yes, I know that's supposed to be "try, try again." But for this story, "fail, fail again" is so much more appropriate.

From the Baltimore Sun we have the story of John Baptist Kotmair, Jr. Back in the early 1980's, Mr. Kotmair served two years for (what else) income tax evasion. One would think he would learn his lesson.

He didn't.

The Justice Department accused Mr. Kotmair and his foundation, the Save-A-Patriot Fellowship, of selling tax fraud schemes. His home study program only costs $295! What a deal! Your first year of membership in the fellowship is only $700—get it now, it won't last at this price (or any price, if the DOJ gets an injunction).

Mr. Kotmair, who is 70, probably won't get a third chance to fail. Luckily for prosecutors, Mr. Kotmair's son is active in the organization and already has one conviction to his name.

On a serious note, the usual rule applies: If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Maybe it's something in the water. But somehow we must look again to what is now apparently the hotbed of tax evasion: Cincinnati, Ohio. A federal jury in Cincinnati found "expert" tax preparer Walter Daulton guilty of assisting in the preparation of fraudulent income tax returns, according to this story on etrucker.com.

Mr. Daulton, who specialized in preparing tax returns for the trucking industry, apparently advised his clients to claim expenses for the mundane. Like putting a tarp of over a truck's trailer. (Now, the cost of the tarp is a valid business expense. However, you can't deduct the value of your time when you use the tarp.)

According to the US Attorney, the goal of Mr. Daulton was to make the deductions come to a desired result, no matter whether the deductions were actually incurred. Mr. Daulton faces up to three years in prison for each of 18 convictions.

A man in Cincinnati, OH came up with a great idea (or so he thought). He decided to sell income tax evasion kits. Somehow the IRS and the Department of Justice didn't think it was a great idea. Yeah, they're a bunch of sore losers.

The Department of Justice took the man, Dana Ewell, to civil court (he did avoid criminal court, so he won one battle). According to this story in the Cincinnati Enquirer, a permanent injunction has been entered into. So the world will have to do without the Liberty Pure Trust, the Liberty Action Pack, the Organic Sovereign Freeman Compendium and the Onshore, Offshore, International Investment Opportunity.