26 U.S.C. 7202, Willful failure to collect or pay over tax: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025
Guilty pleas ended 506 of the 541 federal cases (94%) in which 26 U.S.C. 7202 was the most serious charge at the end of the case, in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Only 15 defendants went to trial, and 1 was acquitted. Of the 520 convicted, 362 (70%) received a prison term on that charge, with a median
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In brief: Guilty pleas ended 506 of the 541 federal cases (94%) in which 26 U.S.C. 7202 was the most serious charge at the end of the case, in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Only 15 defendants went to trial, and 1 was acquitted. Of the 520 convicted, 362 (70%) received a prison term on that charge, with a median of 15 months.
This post uses the Federal Judicial Center's records of 541 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. The series also draws on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 659,036 people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
Nearly Every Case Ended in a Plea
Of the 541 defendants, 506 pleaded guilty. Charges against 20 (4%) were dismissed. The remaining 15 (3%) went to trial.
Taken together, 520 of the 541 (96%) were convicted, by plea or by verdict.
Dismissed, in these records, includes charges the government moved to drop. One example is a defendant who pleaded guilty in another case. A dismissal here is not proof that the defendant had no conviction anywhere.
Jury Trials and the Single Acquittal
All 15 trials were heard by a jury. No bench trial, one decided by a judge alone, appears for this section.
One jury trial ended in an acquittal (7%). A rate built on 15 trials rests on 1 verdict and should be read as a count, not a pattern.
Section Heading and Charge Level
Title 26, section 7202 of the U.S. Code is headed "Willful failure to collect or pay over tax". No other description of the statute is given here.
The Federal Judicial Center counted these defendants as in the federal courts' Table D-4. Each one had this section as the most serious charge when the case ended. The count includes convictions, dismissals, and acquittals alike.
Each of the 541 charges was a felony. The records show no Class A misdemeanor and no petty offense under this section.
Prison Terms After Conviction
Of the 520 convicted, 362 (70%) were sentenced to prison on this charge. The other convicted defendants had no prison term recorded on it.
For those with a term of 1 month or more, the median prison term was 15 months. The median sits in the middle of the sorted terms. It does not include time on other counts.
Counsel at the End of the Case
Retained private lawyers represented 410 defendants (76%). Federal public or community defenders represented 80 (15%), and CJA panel attorneys represented 44 (8%). A CJA panel attorney is a private lawyer appointed by the court. One defendant had no lawyer.
Plea rates were 96% for both retained counsel and federal defenders. The rate for CJA panel attorneys was lower, at 80%, and their dismissal rate was higher, at 11%. CJA panel attorneys went to trial 4 times with no acquittal. Retained counsel went to trial 9 times, and the only acquittal came in that group.
These are differences between groups of cases, not measures of how good any lawyer was. The counsel type is fixed at the end of the case, and defendants who pay for a lawyer face different charges and circumstances than those who receive one.
| Type of counsel at the end of the case | Defendants | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal public or community defender | 80 | 96% | 3% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| CJA panel attorney | 44 | 80% | 11% | 4 | 0 (0 of 4) |
| Private (retained) counsel | 410 | 96% | 2% | 9 | 1 (1 of 9) |
| Self-represented | 1 | 0 of 1 | 0 of 1 | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
Cases by Fiscal Year
Yearly counts ranged from 34 in fiscal year 2020 to 80 in fiscal year 2023. In 2023, 98% pleaded guilty and none of the cases was recorded as dismissed. Fiscal year 2018 had the lowest plea rate, at 86%.
The single acquittal came in fiscal year 2017. No year had more than 3 trials.
| Fiscal year | Cases ended | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 47 | 96% | 4% | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | 51 | 96% | 2% | 1 | 1 (1 of 1) |
| 2018 | 42 | 86% | 7% | 3 | 0 (0 of 3) |
| 2019 | 43 | 91% | 5% | 2 | 0 (0 of 2) |
| 2020 | 34 | 91% | 3% | 2 | 0 (0 of 2) |
| 2021 | 45 | 93% | 4% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2022 | 71 | 96% | 4% | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 80 | 98% | 0% | 2 | 0 (0 of 2) |
| 2024 | 59 | 95% | 3% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2025 | 69 | 90% | 6% | 3 | 0 (0 of 3) |
What Is Missing
No close court-martial counterpart exists in the approved crosswalk, so the federal numbers stand alone. The records do not include the facts of any case or the reasons a prosecutor dropped a charge. They cannot show what caused the yearly changes or the differences between counsel groups.
How We Counted
Every federal defendant whose case ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 and whose most serious charge at the end of the case (TTITLE1) was under 26 U.S.C. 7202, any subsection (541), Federal Judicial Center, counted as in the federal courts' Table D-4. Type of counsel is TCOUNSEL; labels from the FJC criminal codebook. Section heading from the U.S. Code as published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (release point 119-136).
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
Who is in each set of numbers. The federal sentencing numbers come from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They count only people who were convicted and sentenced in federal district court. People whose cases were dismissed or who were acquitted are not in them. The military numbers come from court-martial results, which include acquittals. To compare acquittal or dismissal rates, the federal side uses a different source: the Federal Judicial Center's case data, which counts every defendant whose case ended.
How "plea" and "trial" are counted. In the federal sentencing numbers, "trial" means the person was convicted after a trial, including people who pleaded guilty to some counts and went to trial on others. People acquitted at trial are not in these numbers at all (see "Who is in each set of numbers"). In the federal case data, the trial rate counts both convictions and acquittals at trial among all defendants whose cases ended, including dismissed cases. Military numbers count contested cases that reached a verdict. These denominators are not the same, and each post states the one it uses.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
Type of counsel describes groups of cases, not lawyers. The Federal Judicial Center records the type of counsel at the end of the case. Defendants who hire a lawyer differ from defendants who receive an appointed lawyer in their charges, criminal history, and circumstances, and some defendants change lawyers during a case. Differences in outcomes by type of counsel therefore cannot be credited to the type of lawyer.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- 26 U.S.C. 5861, Prohibited acts: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 26 U.S.C. 7201, Attempt to evade or defeat tax: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 26 U.S.C. 7203, Willful failure to file return, supply information, or pay tax: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 26 U.S.C. 7206, Fraud and false statements: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- Appointed vs. Retained Lawyers in Federal Criminal Cases: How Cases Ended, 2016–2025
- Are Courts-Martial More Likely to End in Acquittal Than Federal Trials?
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.