Landmark Tax Protester Is Sentenced
Tax protester Joe Edelson, convicted of five counts of tax evasion and six other charges, was sentenced Monday to at least a year in federal prison and immediately taken into custody.
Edelson, 63, a real estate salesman, did not pay taxes for the years 1984 through 1988. According to court documents, he owes $37,619 in back taxes--plus at least $20,000 in interest.
Edelson refused to pay because, he said, the IRS had no legal right to the details of his finances. After being indicted, he said last year in an interview that he truly believed in the principle of his position and welcomed a court fight.
His case marked one of the first tests in the nation of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, issued in January, 1991, allowing tax protesters to argue innocence to a jury on the basis of a “good-faith misunderstanding” of tax obligations.
Last October, however, a jury convicted Edelson of the five tax evasion counts and of six counts of using a false Social Security number.
“This was flagrant behavior on his part, in which he stubbornly persisted in claiming that he didn’t have to file any returns or pay taxes,” the prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S. Atty. S. Gay Hugo-Martinez, said Monday after the sentencing hearing.
“As much as probably every taxpayer would like not to (pay), there’s a clear message that we all have an obligation to do it, and no one can circumvent the system,” she said. “And those who try will be punished accordingly.”
Defense lawyer David Cohen, a deputy federal public defender, said Edelson was willing to go to jail to prove his point.
“For Joe Edelson, he believes completely that what he is doing is right,” Cohen said. “He believes he is not violating the law. He believes the position he’s taking is consistent with the Constitution of the United States.
“To the extent he’s serving time in custody, he feels that the principle he holds is so important it’s worth spending time rather than compromise,” Cohen said.
Cohen added that he plans to appeal Edelson’s conviction.
At the hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Earl B. Gilliam Jr. sentenced Edelson to three years in prison for three of the tax evasion counts, the years 1984, 1985 and 1986, Hugo-Martinez said. On those counts, Edelson will be eligible for parole after a year, Cohen said.
The two remaining tax evasion counts--for 1987 and 1988--fell under rigid new federal sentencing guidelines, for which there is no parole available. Gilliam sentenced Edelson to a year on each of those counts, ordering them to run concurrently with the three-year terms.
Gilliam also sentenced Edelson to concurrent terms of a year apiece on two of the six counts of using a false Social Security number, Hugo-Martinez said. Gilliam ordered probation for the remaining four counts, she said.
