Tax protest sentencing falls disproportionately hard on black filers

Evidence

However, the IRS didn’t agree. When the payout was discovered, Crystal Foster was ordered to refund the money and sentenced to three years in prison for fraud; her father, Robert, was sentenced to thirteen. A tax lawyer interviewed by NPR about the case said he would have expected a six-month sentence at the most. Though the case was appealed several times, and Robert Foster’s sentence was eventually reduced, no court ever found in favor of the Fosters and their protest. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 511

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to earlier chapters on audit rates and tax-enforcement disparities against black taxpayers — the Fosters’ prison sentences are a concrete instance.