Maybe if they spread the tax burden around it wouldn't be so bad. Right now over 43 MILLION workers pay no income tax, some even get a "refund". I think this is a crime. I understand helping those on the bottom rung, but EVERYONE who works or has income should pay SOME tax. How long will it take those 43 million to figure out they can vote themselves an entitlement and have someone else pick up the tab.
I am trying to find an analogy here. Maybe making a caraccident. Let's say you drove in a big fog and you say you only drove by 20 mph. But in a great fog even that speed still can be excessive.Or your wheel fall off. Well, you are responsible for your car's mechanical soundness. Or you were changing CDs, well, you shouldn't have. The point is, that if you end up owing the IRS, you made a mistake somewhere in the past, be it unintentional, you are still responsible. And as it seems to me, after 1993 when they raised the bars, you are more and more likely to end up in jail, unless you are willing to cooperate and pay. Hatch's problem was that he didn't want to do either.....
Federal sentencing guidelines dictate that any "loss" in the area of 300K means you're going to jail for at least 24 months. When you add up the points for other violations of the public trust related to fraud, evasion, etc., then the sentence length can expand dramatically, in some cases 10-20 years -- the extreme being the Olis kid from Dynegy who got 24 years (he got smacked with a 9-figure loss). Cooperating with the Feds usually means a downward revision, but if you choose to fight, then sentences can be revised upwards by the prosecutor. And get this, you are not allowed to defend yourself (pro se) in the federal system. If you choose not to hire a lawyer, then a public defender is assigned to you. Basically, the Feds can sniff around anywhere they want, and that should scare people.