Charles L. O. Edwards v. United States

Appellant was indicted on twenty-five counts for violation of federal income tax laws. The District Court, sitting without jury, found him guilty on all counts and he has appealed that judgment. Three sections of the Internal Revenue Code are involved.

1. Failure to file return, 26 U.S.C. § 7203 . Appellant was charged on three counts with willful failure to file income tax returns for the years 1959, 1960 and 1961. His defense was that he was busy on other matters and simply overlooked it. The District Court understandably refused to credit this explanation. Appellant is an experienced tax attorney. Once before he was investigated by the Revenue Service for failure to file timely returns.

On appeal appellant contends that there was a failure to establish the requisite willfulness and criminal intent. He points out that by 26 U.S.C. § 6651 a civil penalty is imposed for failure to file returns unless such failure was “due to reasonable cause and not due to willful neglect.” He contends that a higher degree of willfulness must therefore be contemplated by the criminal statute.

United States v. Murdock, 290 U.S. 389, 394 , 54 S.Ct. 223, 225 , 78 L.Ed. 381 (1933), dealing with a…