Tarzan Zerbini responds to IRS: We're too old to pay taxes

Tarzan Zerbini Circus owners Jean "Tarzan' Zerbini and his wife, Elizabeth, Webb City, filed their response to the federal government's efforts to force them to pay $418,483.14 in unpaid taxes, by claiming the government did not assess the taxes properly and they are too old to be able to pay them. The response was included in documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
Defendant Jean C. Zerbini is 75 years of age and Defendant Elizabeth B. Zerbini is 62 years of age; by virtue of their advanced age, neither are likely to have future ability to pay the tax liabilities at issue.

The Zerbinis' lawyer, Jacquelyn Hunt, Chesterfield, offered the following reasons why her clients should not have to pay the taxes:

-The Internal Revenue Service did not assess the taxes properly.

-The Zerbinis can't pay the taxes, so it would be a hardship on them.

-The government waited too long to make its claim.

The IRS says the Zerbinis failed to pay taxes in 2000, 2002, 2005, and 2015.

The government is asking for the amount of the unpaid taxes, plus interest and additions accruing after June 4.