Richard Michael Simkanin (died 2010) was a tax protester who was imprisoned after having been convicted on twenty-nine counts of United States federal tax crimes.
Background
Simkanin owned a company in Bedford, Texas, called Arrow Custom Plastics, Inc. In 1993, an accountant advised Simkanin that a required change in the accounting method for the company would result in greater corporate income tax. Simkanin then began to question the validity of the federal income tax. On his 1994 and 1995 personal tax returns, he made notations to indicate that the returns were filed under protest, and he did not file personal returns for years 1996 through 2001.
Simkanin told his accountant he was not required to file returns because he lived off his savings and had no income. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in affirming his conviction, stated that this assertion was false and that Simkanin had received a salary from his company. The Court also stated that Simkanin had received payments from Arrow for his personal expenses and that those payments were booked as "repair and maintenance". The Houston Chronicle also reported that a prosecutor indicated that Internal Revenue Service agents and prosecutors had given Simkanin "repeated opportunities to reconsider his position and begin paying taxes" before the government began criminal prosecution. Assistant United States Attorney David Jarvis was quoted as saying "I guess he just figured we wouldn't do anything."
On July 2, 2010, his terms of release were revoked, and the Court sentenced him to an additional six years and seven months in prison. He was incarcerated at the Beaumont Low Federal Correctional Complex at Beaumont, Texas, and had been scheduled for release on March 18, 2016.
While serving his sentence, Simkanin died on December 28, 2010, at the age of sixty-seven.