Though fellow directors of School Administrative District 61 were tight-lipped this week about their colleague’s tax charges, a lawyer debunked Michael Skarbinski’s argument that he doesn’t have to pay income taxes.

Skarbinski and his wife, Elizabeth, are being charged with theft by deception, attempted theft by deception and putting false information on a tax return. The charges could lead to more than five years in jail for the couple.

Superintendent Patrick Phillips said the district has a code of ethics for the school board, but nothing in that code pertained to Skarbinski’s indictment. The code of ethics includes observing the policies of the school district, making decisions openly and maintaining confidentiality, among other things.

“Having someone indicted is probably not a basis for the board to do anything. It might change if conviction were to result,” Phillips said. “It’s just not an issue for us right at the moment.”

Naples Selectman Rick Paraschak said he didn’t know whether he would have felt differently about appointing Skarbinski to the school board in 2007 if he had known about the tax charges. Given that the town has no recall provision, Paraschak said, there was nothing the selectmen or residents could do to remove him from office, even if they wanted to.

“He seems like a straightforward individual who is trying to do the best job for the community and the school,” Paraschak said.

SAD 61 board members declined to comment or did not return phone calls by Lakes Region Weekly deadline.

According to Kate Simmons of the Attorney General’s Office, the Skarbinskis earned $142,000 in wages in 2007, but claimed it didn’t qualify as taxable income on their Maine tax returns. They were refunded the $3,500 withheld from their paychecks. They also attempted to get their withheld taxes back in 2005 and 2006, Simmons said.

Michael Skarbinski works in the Information Technology Department at Maine Medical Center in Portland, and he said his wife works in the health care industry.

The next step is an arraignment, Simmons said, and if the Skarbinskis do not enter into a plea agreement, they will go to trial.

“It’s very likely that they will serve jail time,” Simmons said.

Skarbinski, who has five children, said in an interview last week that he did not intend to steal anything. He said he does not believe employees are required to pay taxes on their wages. He is not trying to hide anything, he said, and he has no intention to step down from the School Board.

But Phil Hunt, a lawyer for the Portland firm, Perkins Thompson, said the tax law is clear and Skarbinski’s arguments are “dead wrong.”

“There’s not even a shred of credibility,” said Hunt, who practices estate, tax and business law. “It’s 100 percent clear.”

Hunt said Skarbinski’s arguments that he has to pay taxes only on profit, not wages, and his contention that only certain categories of people, such as foreigners working in the United States, have to pay taxes, are repeatedly rejected by courts. The word the Internal Revenue Service uses to describe these claims on its Web site debunking them is “frivolous.”

Before he moved to New Gloucester, Hunt served on the Planning Board, Board of Appeals and other committees in Cumberland. Though Hunt said he wouldn’t personally vote for someone with “delusional tax ideas,” he didn’t see any reason why Skarbinski should step down from his position on the SAD 61 board.

“Whether or not this guy pays his taxes has little to do with whether he makes competent decisions on the school board,” Hunt said. “I don’t think he has any obligation to resign.”

Every once in a while, his firm represents a client like Skarbinski, Hunt said.

“You represent them. You try to persuade them that they’re wrong,” Hunt said. “You try and settle up the amounts that they owe.”

Many tax protestors, however, don’t want to hear that they are wrong, Hunt said. “They tend not to be the best of clients,” he said.

More frequently his firm represents employers whose employees have claimed they don’t want any taxes taken out of their wages.

“The answer’s out there, and it’s very, very clear,” Hunt said.