Seriously, just how stupid do you have to be to try something like this? I could understand (maybe) the argument that he thought the network was going to pay the taxes but the rest??? From CNN:
" According to the indictment, his 2000 and 2001 tax returns omitted his income from the reality show, $327,000 he was paid to co-host a radio show and $28,000 in rent on a property he owns in Newport."
He was also accused of misusing funds from a non profit camp he set up. Is he going to do serious time?
If I remember the article correctly, he did have his taxes prepared properly, but didn’t file them because he would owe hundreds of thousands of dollars. He’s toast.
I’m one to gripe about a lot of things, but paying taxes is not one of them.
For Christ’s sake, you just can’t decide not to pay taxes because you don’t want to. Well, I suppose you could … but be prepared for the consequences.
In the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes “Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.”
I meant to post more yesterday other than the word YES.
I was going to say I read the indictment at Smoking Gun and if the government can prove half of it, he’s away for at least a year or two. Maybe more since he isn’t copping a plea.
Maybe in January when he was initially charged with two counts of tax evasion and pled guilty. This indictment adds 8 more counts because he changed his plea.
From what I’ve read, Hatch had an accountant figure out his tax liability and the guy delivered a report saying something like, “okay, with the money you earned plus the money you won this year, you owe $250,000.” Then Hatch asked the accountant to figure out what his taxes would have been if he hadn’t won any money. The accoutnat said “but you did win all that money” and Hatch said “I know but jsut pretend.” So the accountant sent a new report, which he explicitly stated was not based on real figures, which said that under other circumstances Hatch would have been entitled to a $4000 refund. Hatch thanked him and took both reports. And then filed the second one.
Once Hatch came to the IRS’ attention, they started looking in to his other business trnasactions. They found there was other income, some of it based on his real estate business and predating his Survivor experience, which he had also failed to report. They found that he had collected money for his charity foundation and then spent it on his personal expenses. They found he had forged signatures on legal documents he had submitted.
Hatch is now trying to claim that all his tax problems were caused by a big misunderstanding. But knowing the above, it’s clear that he has a long history of tax crimes and that he knew that what he was doing was wrong and illegal.