Are you kidding me?

How dumb can someone be to actually think that they can just ignore the IRS and not pay taxes?

Apparently Wesley Snipes is pretty dumb because he thinks he can!

Being a CPA I subscribe to a very useful daily email news service called WebCPA that provides interesting articles. Okay, okay, interesting to me anyway. So anyway, on Monday I saw this article summary:

New Tax City
Years ago, when Steve Martin was performing his stand-up comedy act, he incorporated this scenario where he pretended to appear before a dour IRS auditor who asked him why he neglected to file his taxes.

I never saw the comedy routine performed, but I remembered hearing about this from a friend of mine who thought it was hilarious. So I clicked on the link and started reading. The article did talk about Steve Martin's comedy routine, but also was a commentary/recommendation on/to Mr. Snipes to use Steve's "I forgot" response.

But, it seems that the illustrious Mr. Snipes, aka "Blade" in the Blade movie trilogy, either

never saw Steve Martins routine either or else he might have followed that to a better result. He apparently doesn't feel that the US government has any right to tax him nor does the Internal Revenue Service have the right to collect the taxes from him! Here's a quote from one of his attorney's that was posted by Mike Mazza on the Lede:

"Although Mr. Snipes’s own lawyers admit that his views are “kooky,” “crazy” and “dead wrong,” one of them argues that “no merit does not equal fraud,” according to Mr. Johnston’s report today on the jury’s deliberations."

No merit does not equal fraud? Huh? Man, this lawyer must be as far off his rocker as Blade is! Since when does ignoring law, even tax law, not fraud when the primary purpose is to evade paying taxes. He did not pay his taxes for six years - from 1999 to 2004 on $58 million in income. What a dumb a$$. Well, the trial is now in the jury deliberation phase and I'll be nterested to see just what happens to this character. I wonder how he'll look in stripes?

One funny coincidence is that Blade's trial is being held in Ocala, FL where my parents live now.

PS:

Blade also has a Tax Manifesto that I've included a link to in case you would like some fiction to read. ;-)

Amazing pool shot

I received this video from my dad and was amazed when I played it. Someone set up 4 pool tables connected with pool cue links. Each pool table had a number of dominoes and ramps set up with pool balls arranged in strategic locations. Once the first domino was tripped the shot played out, sinking each ball on the table in succession then on to the next table until reaching the last table.

What I'm really amazed at is the length of time it must have taken to set this up. I used to play with dominoes when I was young setting up, what I thought were complex patterns, but never anything like this!

Enjoy.

First post

Just moved from Yahoo360 where I only posted a few times. Maybe on Blogger I'll be somewhat more prolific! Who knows?