Hood v. United States

How later courts describe this case

• noting that holding corporate office does not per se impose a duty, but that an officer may have such a duty even if he is not the disbursing officer so long as he otherwise has sufficient power within the corporate structure
• “Despite its denomination as a ‘penalty’ assessment, the statutory liability imposed by Section 6672 is essentially civil in nature”
• “ ‘a fair and impartial trial is guaranteed to every defendant, and fundamentally means a trial before an impartial judge and by an impartial jury.’ ”
• the individual’s bad purpose or evil motive in failing to collect and pay the taxes “properly play no part in the civil definition of willfulness.”
• “[T]he corporate and individual liabilities under Section 6672 are separate and distinct.”
• IRS was not bound by a bankruptcy referee’s order, concerning allocation of funds received from the liquidation of a corporate debtor, so that it could preserve its claims for trust fund liabilities against the responsible corporate officers
• evidence must be viewed in light most favorable to prosecution
• explicitly rejecting the reasonable cause exception