As April 15th rapidly approaches, we at Teaspiller thought it might help to lighten up the mood for all you last-minute filers stressing about getting your taxes done.   As the golden rule of business ethics 101 goes, don't do something you don't want to see in a blog one day ...  Like not paying your taxes ;)

The Teaspiller Top 5 Favorite Tax Evaders

1. UBS. Ah, offshore bank accounts…particularly the Swiss variety. Tax evaders will always have a special place in their hearts for these bad boys. UBS’s cross-border banking team sent Europe based bankers to the US posing as tourists (tourists with encrypted laptops) to secretly meet with wealthy clients, and move their money offshore. So what if tax evasion is illegal in the United States? It’s legal in Switzerland, and apparently that’s all that matters (hey, this is the same bank that directed bankers in this same group to smuggle precious stones out of the US in toothpaste tubes)! Eventually UBS was forced to divulge the identities of 250 US based clients, who the IRS is in the process of plundering. Sounds like some jail time and stiff penalties are in order.

2. Tim Geithner. Oh Timmy, when even the Secretary of the Treasury doesn’t pay his taxes, we know there’s trouble afoot! While working for the International Monetary Fund in 2001, this steward of our economy neglected to pay his federal payroll taxes…oops! It was a mistake so small, that he did it again…for the next three years (his accountant can take a bow on this one; really). It wasn’t until it looked like a Senate confirmation hearing was in the not so far off future that he decided that it might be a good idea to actually pay some of these back taxes. Perhaps most importantly, there were no repercussions (I’m pretty sure the IRS would have thrown me in jail or given me a hefty fine) because, as he put it, “I did not believe I was avoiding my liability.” Ah, well, if Tim Geithner says it, it’s good enough for me!

3. Snoop Dogg. Snoop is in the dogg house with the IRS. You could say that they went after him with dogged determination. Okay, I’m done. But seriously, what’s a G to do when times are tough? Why, not pay taxes, of course. According to the California Tax Franchise Board, Snoop owed the state $284,053 in back taxes, and a lien has been put on his SoCal pad. More recently, in February, the big dogs at the IRS have filed a tax lien for $589,309 against Snoop. We wish them luck with getting their money back. We wouldn’t want to go up against Snoop and his posse.

4. Winson T. Lee.  We don’t know who he is either, but apparently the State of California does. This self described “investor” owes the state about $9.94 million in back taxes, and takes the grand prize for owing the most back taxes out of anyone in the state. Lee claims that he has an “illness” and inability to deal with the large stack of papers and headache of doing his taxes each year, and hadn’t filed his taxes in at least ten years. I’m crying on the inside, really. He most likely should have invested in a good accountant.

5. Joe Francis. The brilliant guy who brought us Girls Gone Wild has brought the party to court. Last summer, Francis was on trial for two counts of felony tax evasion (ouch!) from 2002 and 2003. Apparently spending a ton of money going after Kim Kardashian isn’t considered to be a legitimate business expense, and can therefore not be a deduction. Leave it to the straight laced fellas at the IRS to take all the fun out of things. Anyway, the IRS has gone wild and demanded $29.4 million in back taxes. Joe, Spring Break’s here. Go make that cash!