United States v. Richard A. Aitken

COFFIN, Circuit Judge.

In this appeal we deal with the mental state required to be proven before one is convicted of violating certain Internal Revenue Code filing requirements. Specifically, we are asked to determine whether “wilfulness” means a subjective intent to disobey the tax laws or merely the absence of what a jury would consider an objectively reasonable ground for failure to comply.

Appellant, a veteran fireman in the town of Rockland, Massachusetts, was charged with wilfully failing to file tax returns for 1979, 1980, and 1981, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203, and with wilfully…