18
Horners’ defense.
3
The district court did not abuse its discretion by not charging
the jury with the specific language about good faith reliance requested by the
Horners.
B. Due Diligence Obligations of Tax Preparers
In addition to the language included in their good faith reliance instruction
explaining the obligations of tax preparers, the Horners proposed a similar,
separate instruction—“Due Diligence Obligations of Tax Preparers”—that they
contend the district court erred by not giving.
4
This instruction purports to use
3
The district court’s instruction did contain some language about whether the defendants
believed themselves “exempt” from the law or decided not to follow it for political, religious, or
moral reasons, even though the Horners did not raise that defense. Even if this was error,
however, it was not “plain error” and was harmless in any event. The district court instructed the
jury on good-faith reliance on advice of an accountant, and the closing arguments focused on
whether the Horners lacked knowledge, made a good faith mistake, or had criminal intent. See
Morgan v. Family Dollar Stores, Inc., 551 F.3d 1233, 1283 (11th Cir. 2008) (explaining that
appellate review of jury instruction “is not to nitpick the instructions for minor defects” and that
as long as the jury charge as a whole is correct, even if technically imperfect, no reversible error
occurred).
4
This requested charged stated as follows:
The Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, or delegate, may
designate an individual eighteen years of age or older as a registered
tax return preparer provided an applicant demonstrates competence in
Federal tax return preparation matters by written examination
administered by, or administered under the oversight of, the Internal
Revenue Service, or otherwise meets the requisite standards
prescribed by the Internal Revenue Service, possesses a current or
otherwise valid preparer tax identification number or other prescribed
identifying number, and has not engaged in any conduct that would
justify the suspension or disbarment of any practitioner under the
provisions of this part.
Any individual who is designated as a registered tax return
preparer. . . who is not currently under suspension or disbarment from
Case: 15-14675 Date Filed: 04/13/2017 Page: 18 of 28