TAX NEWS - June 2010

Peace advocate to serve one year in prison for tax evasion

BANGOR, Maine --- A man from Lamoine was sentenced to one year in prison on Monday for evading his taxes.

Sixty-five year old Frank Donnelly says he committed the multi-year tax evasion, which totaled tens of thousands of dollars, to show opposition to U.S. wars. A number of his supporters came together to rally for him outside of the federal courthouse in Bangor Monday morning.

The former lobster broker and longtime war tax resister pled guilty to under-reporting his gross income  from 2002 to 2004. An investigation by the Internal Revenue Service concluded that in total Donnelly under-reported his earnings by almost $3 million during those three tax years and that the entire evasion resulted in a tax loss of approximately $129,600. 

The prosecution also maintained that Donnelly committed the crime for his own benefit and used that money for a series of personal investments, which it says included buying land in Florida and property in Costa Rica.

Following his sentencing on Monday, the defendant swiftly denied those claims.

"I'm a war tax resister... not a tax cheat," Donnelly said, "You got to stand up for your beliefs... and so I'm going to jail for my beliefs."

In addition to prison time, Donnelly will also be forced to pay fines and over $89,000 in restitution to the I.R.S. He is scheduled to begin his jail sentence on July 26.