Tax Crimes and Littering?

Where should tax crimes fall in the spectrum of criminal activity? In “Alice's Restaurant” a ‘60’s Vietnam protest movie, Arlo Guthrie tells the story of his avoiding the draft by having been arrested for littering in Vermont. The military was unwilling to take him into the Army knowing he had such a sordid past. In one famous scene, Guthrie is shunned by other inductees waiting psychoanalysis for their past criminal actions when they learn his only crime is littering. They welcome him back however, when he reveals a further charge of disorderly conduct. Now the people at the Immigration and Naturalization Service are permitted to deport aliens under United States Code Section 1227 if they have been convicted of an “aggravated felony”. That seems sensible. I can picture all types of terrible crimes that would fit that definition. But in Kawashima vs. Holder, the United States Supreme Court had to confront the important issue of whether filing a false income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service is such an “aggravated felony” as to require deportation of two natives and citizens of Japan who have been lawful permanent residents of the United States since 1984.The taxpayers went through hearings within INS and through the courts. After an exhaustive study of what the term aggravated felony means in the INS law, the Supreme Court in a 6 to 3 decision determined that such a tax crime was in fact an aggravated felony which can result in deportation. Lawyers should note that tax evasion is sometimes called the piggyback crime, at least by me, because it can be added to most financial crimes where income has been gained. The Internal Revenue Code makes income taxable from any source legal or not. So the thief is pursued by the police as well as by IRS agents. The mere non filing of returns can also result in a charge of tax evasion and taxpayers so situated should consider taking advantage of the IRS’ voluntary disclosure policy.