U.S. v. Black

Dist. Ct. erred in sentencing defendant to 71-month term of incarceration on charges of obstructing IRS and passing fictitious financial documents with intent to defraud, where said sentence was based in part on Dist. Ct.’s improper calculation of tax loss under section 2T1.1 of USSG. Record showed that defendant sent IRS series of bad checks to satisfy certain tax liens levied on defendant’s properties, and Dist. Ct. erred in calculating tax loss by aggregating amount of each fraudulent check that defendant attempted to pay off same debt owed to IRS. As such, Dist. Ct. should have calculated tax loss by amount that was actually owed to IRS when defendant first attempted to pay IRS. Dist. Ct. also erred in including penalties and interest in tax loss calculation.