You don't understand how this stuff works.  Millions of tax payers cheat on their taxes in the US.  The IRS is not set-up to even mess with them so it lets most people slip though.  Rich people have highly paid tax lawyers.  They do deals with the government so big fines are bad and usually there is not even a trial.  If there is a trial, it is often because the government is targeting someone.  

Why do people keep blaming the governments for the actions of judges?

Oh, and Auron, the majority of people going before a court in the UK for taking drugs don't end up in prison, the end up in rehabilitation, just like Kate Moss, and Amy Winehouse.

You'd get sent to prison for drug dealing, not abuse.

Snipes deserves his sentence but I am agitated because he is going to be in jail while yet another set of NYC Police Officers are free to roam the streets after firing 50 times on three unarmed citizens. I guess the next set will go for 60 shots. Hell the guys that shot 41 times got off too.

I do not see where he is being treated that differently. I find this part funny:
He also offered three cheques amounting to $5m (£2.5m) as a gesture of good will.

Lower sentences are for those who you sympathise with because they couldn't afford the taxes, there buisness has gone under, etc...  Not those who can easily pull $5 million out of their pocket.

If he was given 50 years instead of 3, then maybe you would have something to wine about.

They should find more targets.  It would help take the burden off those of us who don't cheat on our taxes!

Quoting for truth.

Sorry, but a punishment needs to be a punishment. If you have a guy who has $50 to his name and you fine him $25, he's lost half of all the money he has, that's a punishment. If you say that a guy who has $1000000 to his name is going to be punished by a $25 fine, then you have no idea what you're talking about. This is no different than a kid putting a magazine in the back of his pants so it doesn't hurt when he gets spanked.

On top of that, it says very clearly:

United States District Judge William Terrell Hodges said the action star had shown a "history of contempt over a period of time" for US tax laws.

Essentially, BBC is pulling shit out of their ass. He didn't get the max penalty because of fame, he got the max penalty because the judge came to the conclusion that he was deliberately ignoring the system DUE TO his fame. Essentially the judge was ruling that this was not just a minor series of oversights, but that the guy had the ability to pay, knows he's supposed to pay, but chose not to, expecting his fame to stave off any real repercussions. That attitude DOES need to be stomped into the dirt, so this ruling gets my approval.

Also this line just makes me want to smack the guy on top of the jail sentence:

Snipes asked the court to show mercy, apologising for his behaviour by saying he was "an idealistic, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance"

Furthermore, why the hell is the BBC reporting on this? Is Wesley Snipes British or vacationed out there often? Did Wesley Snipes suddenly start setting foreign policy? I just don't see the reasoning to this article.