Is Stupid a Defense to a Tax Crime? (10/20/16)

DOJ Tax announced, here, the following indictment of a Utah resident for "one count of attempting to evade the payment of his federal income taxes for the years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010, and one count of corruptly endeavoring to impair and impede the due administration of the internal revenue laws."  The indictment is here.  Here is the key excerpt from the press release:

According to the allegations in the indictment, in March 2012, Louis Hansen, presented a check to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the amount of $342,699.41 that was drawn on a closed bank account in an attempt to pay taxes, penalties and interest that he owed for tax years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010.  He also caused a copy of this check to be mailed to an IRS revenue officer, as well as a signed certified letter claiming that he had submitted the check to discharge his debt.  The indictment further alleges that in June 2012, Hansen presented four additional checks to the IRS drawn on a different closed bank account in an attempt to have funds credited to his IRS tax account.  Each check was in the amount of $425,000.  According to the indictment, at the time these four checks were presented to the IRS, Hansen owed more than $240,000 in taxes for the years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011.

JAT Comment:

1.  I presume that this guy, if convicted, will not be subject to the sophisticated means sentencing specific offense characteristic requiring a 2-level upward adjustment to the base offense level..

2.  I just wonder if this defendant could argue that he did not have the specific Cheek willfulness intent required for tax evasion or the intent required for tax obstruction (sometimes equated to Cheek willfulness) because what he did could not have evaded the tax or materially obstructed the IRS.