Source: http://openjurist.org/print/28074
Timestamp: 2015-08-04 12:05:09
Document Index: 423670676

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 7201', '§ 7207', '§ 7203', '§ 7203', '§ 7203', '§ 7207', '§ 7201', '§ 7207', '§ 7207', '§ 3616']

380 US 343 Sansone v. United States
Home > 380 US 343 Sansone v. United States
380 US 343 Sansone v. United States 380 U.S. 343
85 S.Ct. 1004
13 L.Ed.2d 882
Michael C. SANSONE, Petitioner,v.UNITED STATES.
The following facts were established at trial. In March 1956 petitioner and his wife purchased a tract of land for $22,500 and simultaneously sold a portion of the tract for $20,000. In August 1957 petitioner sold another portion of the tract for $27,000. He did not report the gain on either the 1956 or 1957 sale in his income tax returns for those years.1 Petitioner conceded that the 1957 transaction was reportable and that, in not reporting it, he understated his tax liability for that year by $2,456.48. He contended, however, that this understatement was not willful since he believed at the time that extensive repairs on a creek adjoining a portion of the tract he retained might be necessary and that the cost of these repairs might wipe out his profit on the 1957 sale.
At the conclusion of the trial, petitioner requested that the jury be instructed that it could acquit him of the charged offense of willfully attempting to evade or defeat taxes in violation of § 7201, but still convict him of either or both of the asserted lesser-included offenses of willfully filing a fraudulent or false return, in violation of § 7207,2 or willfully failing to pay his taxes at the time required by law, in violation of § 7203.3 Section 7201 is a felony providing for a maximum fine of $10,000 and imprisonment for five years. Both §§ 7203 and 7207 are misdemeanors with maximum prison sentences of one year under each section, and maximum fines of $10,000 under § 7203 and $1,000 under § 7207.
The requested instructions were denied.4 Petitioner was found guilty by the jury of violating § 7201, and was sentenced by the court to pay a fine of $2,000 and to serve 15 months' imprisonment. The conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeals. 334 F.2d 287. We granted certiorari to consider the applicability of the lesser-included offense doctrine to these federal tax statutes. 379 U.S. 886, 85 S.Ct. 159, 13 L.Ed.2d 92.
We are faced with the threshold question as to whether or not § 7207, which proscribes the willful filing with a Treasury official of any known false or fraudulent 'return,' applies to the filing of an income tax return.5 If § 7207 does not apply to income tax returns, it is obvious that the defendant was not here entitled to a lesser-included offense charge based on that section.
There were two major bases of this Court's conclusion in Achilli that § 3616(a) did not apply to such returns. First, unlike other criminal provis