United States v. James D. Ducharme

The appellant has appealed from his conviction on two counts of having knowingly and wilfully supplied false information on his Employees Withholding Exemption Certificates in violation of Title 26 U.S.C. § 7205 . He was sentenced to serve a period of six months on each count, to run concurrently, to be confined in a jail-type institution for 60 days to be served on weekends, and the balance of the sentence of imprisonment was suspended and appellant was placed on probation for a period of three years. As a condition of probation, appellant was ordered to pay a fine of $500 and the costs of prosecution.

After carefully reviewing the record, we are of the opinion that the conviction of appellant should be affirmed, but that the sentence imposed must be, and hereby is, modified by eliminating therefrom only the condition of probation that appellant pay “the costs of prosecution.” Section 7205 does not authorize the assessment of costs in addition to a fine as do other sections of Title 26, e. g., 7201, 7202 and 7203. The maximum fine authorized for a violation of § 7205 is $500 and the assessment of costs of prosecution is tantamount to increasing that fine.

Appellant, protesting…