United States v. Scott Haynes
Opinion
Opinion
MEMORANDUM
Scott Haynes appeals the sentence imposed following his guilty plea to five counts of failure to file income tax returns in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203 . Haynes’s wife, Kristin Haynes, also pled guilty to similar charges, and we recently affirmed her sentence. United States v. Haynes, 442 Fed.Appx. 276 (9th Cir.2011).
Like his wife, Haynes has argued that the district court erred in calculating the tax loss, by relying on the government’s “direct method” calculations rather than the default formula of 20% of defendant’s gross income. See U.S.S.G. § 2T1.1(c)(2)(A) (2009). The district court’s calculation, however, was supported by IRS agents’ testimony and tables, and Haynes fails to provide evidence showing that the government’s method was not more accurate than the method he would prefer. See id. The district court’s calculation was not clearly erroneous.
Haynes also argues that the district court should have credited him with large deductions for business expenses. The Guideline, however, does not require the tax loss calculation to be reduced by deductions that were never claimed. See United States v. Yip, 592 F.3d 1035, 1041 (9th Cir.2010).