Opinion ID: 280900
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Requested Instruction

Text: 27 The prosecution under Counts Five, Seven, and Eight was under 26 U.S.C. § 7203 as noted before. The trial court refused appellant's requested instruction to the jury that another section of the gambling excise statute, i. e., 26 U.S.C. § 7262, is a lesser included offense and that the jury would be authorized therefore to return, alternatively, one of three forms of verdict, i. e., not guilty, or guilty of violation of Section 7203, or guilty of violation of Section 7262, depending upon the jury's findings on the evidence presented. 28 The two sections are entirely separate and distinct entities. Section 7262 reads: 29 Any person who does any act which makes him liable for special tax under subchapter B of chapter 35 without having paid such tax, shall, besides being liable to the payment of the tax, be fined not less than $1,000 and not more than $5,000. (Emphasis added.) 30 Subchapter B of Chapter 35 is entitled Occupational Tax, 26 U.S.C. § 4411. Section 7203, on which the prosecution was based, makes it an offense to wilfully fail to file wagering excise tax returns as required by 26 U.S.C. § 4401 which is contained in Subchapter A of Chapter 35 and therefore has no relation whatsoever to Section 7262. 31 The complete answer to appellant's contention here is that he was not charged in these counts with wilful failure, in violation of Section 7203, to pay the special occupational tax. If he had been so charged then Section 7262 would indeed have been a lesser included offense. 32 The trial court quite properly denied what would have been an erroneous instruction.