Another FAA Air Traffic Controller TP

[Demosthenes]

Couple plead guilty to tax evasion
They'll spend a year in federal prison

By Margot Sanger-Katz
Monitor staff
June 25, 2008 - 12:00 am

A Loudon couple who refused to pay income taxes for seven years were sentenced to year-long federal prison terms yesterday after pleading guilty to tax evasion.

Anthony and Deborah Carder, of Loudon and Aiken, S.C., earned about $800,000 between 2000 and 2006 and made most of their money from Anthony Carder's job as a federal air traffic controller in Nashua. The couple stopped paying their taxes five days after attending a seminar by former tax protester Steven Swan of Auburn, who is serving a federal prison sentence for helping others prepare false returns.

U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe, who issued the sentence, said the Carders had ignored many warnings. They continued to file fraudulent returns after calls from the IRS, notification of Swan's prosecution and conviction, and notice that they were under federal investigation.

"There's no excuse here for not paying taxes, particularly when you're making a six-figure federal income," McAuliffe said before sentencing both Carders to a year and a day in prison.

The Carders' lawyers had asked for a more lenient sentence - home confinement and community service - arguing that the couple had been duped by promoters and that their generosity and volunteer work showed that they had not evaded taxes out of greed. A legal brief penned by lawyers Steven Gordon and Michael Sheehan described the couple's behavior as "lemming like" and "destructive."

But when pressed yesterday, the Carders both told McAuliffe that they had understood their tax evasion to be illegal. Their objections to the tax law were based in a philosophical dispute, they said, not in a good faith misunderstanding of the tax law.

"We knew we owed taxes. We didn't pay taxes. We're guilty," Deborah Carder told the judge. "We did it because we believed what those people told us to do, and we just kept going."

Swan told students that there was no legal basis for the federal income tax and that the tax was unconstitutional, theories that have been repeatedly dismissed by federal courts. Swan and other promoters told the Carders that they would not face criminal charges if they sent the right letters and filed the right forms, they said.

With Swan's help, the Carders filled out tax returns in 2000 indicating that they had earned no income, even though Anthony Carder had six-figure earnings from his air traffic controller job and Deborah Carder had also earned income.

The Carders persisted in following those instructions even after Swan recanted his own views, was arrested, convicted and sentenced to six years in prison for preparing false tax returns for himself and customers.

In a 2002 suit, Swan acknowledged that his conduct had been criminal and blamed his own teacher, Irwin Schiff of Las Vegas, who is also serving time in federal prison for tax evasion. According to Swan's suit, Schiff tricked him into illegal conduct.

"I don't think it is anything (Schiff) is trying to do purposely, but he is guilty of misrepresentation, fraud and negligence," Swan told CNS News, after filing suit for $7 million in damages.

According to their lawyers, the Carders lived a modest lifestyle in small homes, and frequently gave food and money to needy friends and relatives. The nearly $800,000 is gone. Yesterday, Sheehan said the Carders have begun making $500 payments on their tax debt and will sell a truck to keep up with the schedule.

[Quixote]

But when pressed yesterday, the Carders both told McAuliffe that they had understood their tax evasion to be illegal. Their objections to the tax law were based in a philosophical dispute, they said, not in a good faith misunderstanding of the tax law.

Which could explain this:

The Carders persisted in following those instructions even after Swan recanted his own views, was arrested, convicted and sentenced to six years in prison for preparing false tax returns for himself and customers.

And could explain why showing TPs the flaw in their latest guru's argument does not work. They never cared about the argument anyway, just the conclusion. It's interesting that the Carders didn't even pretend to find a new guru after Swan's house of cards was toppled.