Supreme Court to Decide Whether Tax Crimes Other Than Tax Evasion Are Aggravated Felonies Under Immigration Law (5/24/11)

On May 23, 2011, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Kawashima v. Holder, 615 F.3d 1043 (9th Cir. 2010) about which I have previously blogged here. The question presented is:

Whether, in direct conflict with the Third Circuit, the Ninth Circuit erred in holding that Petitioners' convictions of filing, and aiding and abetting in filing, a false statement on a corporate tax return in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 7206(1) and (2) were aggravated felonies involving fraud and deceit under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(M)(i), and Petitioners were therefore removable.

The following discussion of the issue is from my Federal Tax Crimes book:

Immigration status may be affected by conviction of an “aggravated felony.” Conviction of an aggravated felony will require deportation. An aggravated felony is defined to include an offense that:

(i) involves fraud or deceit in which the loss to the victim or victims exceeds $10,000; or

(ii) is described in § 7201 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (related to tax evasion) in which the revenue loss to the Government exceeds $10,000; . . . n1

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