United States v. Carl L. Poschwatta

Defendant-appellant Carl L. Poschwatta appeals his criminal conviction for failure to file income tax returns for the years 1980, 1981, and 1982, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203 . We affirm the conviction.

I.

Defendant Poschwatta is an airline pilot with Western Airlines. He has been employed by Western for nearly twenty years. Appearing pro se, defendant was tried in 1978 for submitting to his employer a Form W-4 claiming 99 allowances. Defendant was convicted of filing a false and fraudulent withholding certificate and sentenced by the district court to one-year imprisonment in January 1979. The defendant appealed the conviction to this court and the conviction was upheld. Subsequently, defendant made a Rule 35 motion to reduce his sentence. He filed an affidavit stating that he regards himself as a law-abiding citizen and that he was willing to work with the IRS to resolve his tax liability. Accordingly, defendant filed returns for the years 1975 through 1979 in July and September 1980. Shortly thereafter, defendant’s sentence of one year was suspended after a hearing on the Rule 35 motion.

By April 15, 1981, however, defendant had failed to file a return for the year 1980.…