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Creation science is back in the news. There is the fourth grade quiz gone viral.  Then there is Kent Hovind’s doctoral dissertation being rereleased on wikileaks.  I’m not sure the latter is actually news, but the buzz makes it seem that way.  Dammit, Jim, I’m a tax blogger, not an educational expert, so I am going to give you the news that everybody else is missing.  The Tax Court has issued its order on Dr. Dino, as Kent Hovind is known.  It is not a decision like the one issued in his wife’s case.  It is just an order because Doctor Hovind had informed the Tax Court that he has  “has no intention of proceeding in tax court at any point in the future”.

Still it is pretty impressive.  Here is the most interesting  part:

Year  Deficiency    6651(f)     6651(a)(2)    6654
1998 $113,026.00 $ 81,943.85  $ 28,256.50  $ 5,130.06
1999 $195,708.00 $141,888.30  $ 48,927.00  $ 9,399.26
2000 $197,061.00 $142,426.98  $ 49,112.75   $10,562.41
2001 $155,216.00 $112,531.60  $ 38,804.00  $ 6,203.03
2002 $155,238.00 $111,920.43  $ 38,593.25  $ 5,155.49
2003 $136,545.00 $ 98,995.13  $ 34,136.25  $ 3,523.02
2004 $267,428.00 $193,885.30  $ 66,857.00  $ 7,663.70
2005 $298,640.00 $216,514.00  $ 65,700.80  $11,978.91
2006 $147,669.00 $107,060.03  $ 23,627.04  $ 6,988.26

Yikes.  I make the grand total to be over 3.3 million with the penalties being slightly more than the tax.  The penalties are for failure to file, with a fraud enhancement, failure to pay and failure to make estimates.  That’s as bad as it gets short of forfeiting your liberty, which, of course, also happened to Kent Hovind, who is currently at the Berlin, NH Federal Correctional Institution with a projected release date of 8/11/2015.

An earlier ruling by the court may have influenced Dr. Hovind to not proceed

The Court notes that the record in this case is replete with patently frivolous and groundless arguments by petitioner, acting by and through his counsel, Mr. Jerold W. Barringer.

Mr. Barringer withdrew as counsel before the final order.  Apparently, he has other problems.

I doubt that this order will have much effect on the deficit.  3.3 million dollars wouldn’t really go that far to begin with, even after you tack on the interest, and actually collecting from Doctor Dino will probably not be that easy.

About The Quiz

The story is that it started when a fourth grader got into an argument with her mother about people running around with dinosaurs.  Mom decided to further look into what they were teaching her kid at the Blue Ridge Christian AcademyThe quiz on which the bright kid received a 100/A+ included some true or false questions including – The Earth is billions of years old – False, Dinosaurs lived millions of years ago – False and Dinosaurs lived with people – True.  Gee, even I know that

Apparently Mom did not pay close attention to the school’s statement of beliefs which includes “We believe the Bible to be inspired; the only infallible, authoritative, inerrant Word of God “.

What surprises me is that people seemed to be surprised by this.  According to Gallup 46% of Americans believe that God created human beings as they are now less than 10,000 years ago. Many probably find it disturbing to think otherwise

There are those that are very troubled by the widespread rejection of evolution, but I am not among them.  I asked a friend of mine who has extensive training in biological science what practical effect not believing in evolution might have on the life enhancing things that biological science provides us.  He couldn’t come up with one, but he did indicate that, in the long run, theocracy is bad for science.

I tend to think that the ways in which people are screwed up is related to us evolving over a million years to live in small hunter gather bands and our genomes have not had time to catch up with agriculture and civilization in general.  Frankly, though, original sin probably works as well to account for how we are and is simpler to understand.

I know that if something really awful happened in my community, the outpouring of generous support from across the country would be coming close to equally from people who believe or don’t believe in evolution and that is probably the most important thing for us all to remember when these debates get a little heated.

Thank You Bob

I would have missed the Tax Court order were it not for Robert Baty, retired IRS appeals officer and my champion commenter.

You can follow me on twitter @peterreillycpa.