Minnesota Justices Weigh Proof Needed for Felony Tax Evasion

At least one Minnesota Supreme Court justice appeared skeptical Monday that the state’s felony tax evasion law requires a meaningfully different criminal intent than its misdemeanor counterpart.

The state’s tax evasion statute says a person commits a felony if he or she “willfully attempts in any manner to evade or defeat a tax” either “by failing to file a return or by failing to pay a tax.”

The question at oral arguments before the state’s highest court was whether prosecutors must prove a separate, affirmative act of evasion—such as creating false records or hiding income—to secure a felony conviction, or ...