Businessman Gets 6 Years for Unpaid Taxes
By JIM WASSERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS April 13, 2005
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A businessman who refused to pay his income taxes and those of 10 employees, arguing that federal income tax laws were repealed in 1939, was sentenced to six years in prison Wednesday.
Walter "Al" Thompson, former owner of Cencal Aviation, a Shasta Lake manufacturer of aviation accessories and clothing, said before the sentencing that he should not have to serve any time.
"I have not committed a crime and there's nothing to convict me on," he said.
In January, a federal jury convicted Thompson of 13 counts of tax resistance, including not paying his own taxes since 1999 and failing to pay those of his employees since 2000.
In a long, rambling discussion with U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb, Thompson refused to acknowledge the court's authority, saying, "My first responsibility is to God and the Ten Commandments."
Thompson, 58, of Redding, also was fined $7,500 but was not ordered to pay the $259,000 that federal tax authorities claimed he owed in back taxes. Thompson had faced up to 63 years in prison and a maximum $3.25 million fine.
Federal attorneys and the Internal Revenue Service rejected Thompson's arguments that income earned by most citizens doesn't meet the definition of taxable income under U.S. Treasury regulations.
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