How many years could Chauvin get for tax fraud?

Question

Derek Chauvin was charged with nine counts of felony tax fraud. I looked up the maximum sentence for tax evasion. It is five years. Does this mean that, from taxes alone, Chauvin is eligible for 45 years with multiplication. Is that true?

Answer 1

Chauvin is being charged under Minn. Stat. § 289A.63, which makes filing a false return a felony.

Criminal sentencing in Minnesota is generally done using a standard set of sentencing guidelines, which sort of set a presumptive sentence based on the severity of the offense and the defendant's criminal history.

Filing a false return is currently classified at Severity Level 3 (see page 104), and Chauvin presumably has no meaningful criminal history. Looking at the grid, you'll see that his presumptive sentence would be a year and a day.

Minnesota presumes that simultaneously imposed sentences will run concurrently, and only certain offenses are eligible for consecutive sentences. Filing a false tax return is not on the list of offenses eligible for consecutive sentences, so Chauvin would presumably be sentenced to a year and a day, whether he is convicted of one count or 100 counts.

Given the severity level and the lack of a criminal history, though, at least some portion of Chauvin's sentence would be likely be stayed, with the court imposing some other sanctions as terms of his probation.