[bolding added]Couple await sentencing for taxes
Local scam promoter taught them evasion
By Margot Sanger-Katz
[Concord Monitor, Concord, NH; March 19, 2008]
A New Hampshire couple who bought an anti-tax scheme from a local scam promoter have pleaded guilty to multiple charges of tax evasion.
Anthony Carder, 53, and Deborah Carder, 58, who lived in Manchester and Campton and now live in Loudon and Aiken, S.C., each pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of tax evasion, admitting that they dodged taxes on a sum of money between $80,000 and $200,000 between 2000 and 2006 after an Auburn man told them taxes were voluntary.
During those years, the Carders filed their tax returns claiming that they had earned no income, when both were earning significant sums. Carder worked for the Federal Aviation Administration as an air traffic controller and earned more than $100,000 a year, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Morse, while Deborah Carder also worked and earned income.
In exchange for their pleas, the prosecutor agreed to drop several other charges and will recommend a sentence on the low end of federal sentencing guidelines, according to court documents. The Carders also agreed to file complete and accurate tax returns for the relevant years.
They will be sentenced in June.
The Carders learned their tax evasion scheme from Steven Swan of Auburn, a tax protester who sold his services locally and through internet message boards. Swan was convicted of preparing false tax returns for himself and several customers in 2004 and is serving a six-year prison sentence.
Swan and his mentor, Irwin Schiff, who also is serving time in a federal prison, told customers that they would be free from any legal obligation to pay taxes if they filled out returns entering zeros in the places that required figures for taxable income. Their strategy is one of several such schemes popularized by seminars, books and websites based on the idea that the federal income tax is legally invalid or unconstitutional. According to prosecutors in his case, Swan helped file more than 200 fraudulent tax returns.
Both Schiff and Swan sold customers the basic technique and then sold them additional methods on how to manage the IRS when collections and court proceedings began. Several of their customers, including the Carders, have been prosecuted.
"Most of these people, they're rightfully so afraid of the IRS, and they don't want to do it wrong," said JJ MacNab, an expert on tax fraud who is writing a book about the tax-protest movement. "So if you get someone like Schiff to do it for you - a trustworthy man - it was all worth it."
Swan was indicted in 2003 and convicted in 2004. In 2002, following a well-publicized federal raid of Schiff's business, Swan sued his guru, acknowledging that the scheme was illegitimate and arguing he'd been tricked into lost income and criminal liability.
"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.
The Carders' plea agreement suggests the couple continued filing fraudulent tax returns until 2006, four years after Swan's acknowledgement and two after his conviction.
Attorneys for both Carders did not return phone messages yesterday.
Another New Hampshire couple, Ed and Elaine Brown of Plainfield, resisted capture for more than nine months following a tax-evasion conviction. The Browns espoused similar anti-tax theories and often repeated Schiff's slogan, "Show me the law," during their trial. They are now serving 63-month prison sentences and will likely face additional charges for their behavior.
from:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs ... /803190304
