United States v. Howard Awand

MEMORANDUM

Appellants Howard J. Awand and Linda M. Awand appeal from their convictions under 26 U.S.C. § 7203 for failing to pay their incomes taxes on time. We affirm. Because the parties are familiar with the facts and the procedural history, we will not recount them here.

The Awands contend that this Court should reverse their convictions on the basis of a denial of due process because the statute of conviction is void for vagueness and fails to delimit prosecutorial discretion, thereby allowing arbitrary enforcement. The statute is not vague because it gives “ ‘adequate notice to people of ordinary intelligence of what conduct is prohibited.’ ” United States v. Hungerford, 465 F.3d 1113, 1117 (9th Cir.2006) (emphasis omitted) (quoting United States v. Taba cea, 924 F.2d 906, 912 (9th Cir.1991)). Appellants do not argue that they were unaware that failure to pay taxes is prohibited by § 7203. Instead, they claim the IRS duped them into believing that failure to pay taxes when due resulted in only civil, and not criminal, consequences. But they failed to show that they actually relied on explicit IRS statements or reasonably relied on the past imposition of merely interest and…