Posted on 09/05/2002 5:19:31 AM PDT by Pern
A long-time tax activist has sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service informing the agency he will no longer pay income taxes and daring IRS officials to arrest him.
"I ... have not filed a federal income tax return for 1997 or any subsequent year. This is not because I am protesting any law, or because I do not want to pay my 'fair share'; it is because I refuse to be a victim of the biggest financial fraud in history," said "Theft By Deception" video producer Larken Rose.
Vowing not to "remain silent" as Washington allegedly continues to "defraud my fellow Americans," Rose, in his letter, admonished the IRS to "stop terrorizing the American public" while challenging them to "come and get me."
"I will not stand by and allow myself, my family and my neighbors to be extorted simply because some power-happy bureaucrats huff and puff about all the nasty things they will do to anyone who does not 'comply' with the IRS's misapplication of the law," Rose said.
"To the [Department of Justice] and the IRS ... make an 'example' of me," he wrote. "Surely if my position is 'frivolous' and completely devoid of merit, then the DOJ attorneys can easily refute my position in front of a jury, and have me convicted and imprisoned."
"Take your best shot," he challenged.
Larken, in his letter, alleged that the federal income tax "applies only to one's taxable income, not to all income." He said that the federal tax code "clearly" shows "income to be taxable only when it comes from certain types of international or foreign commerce."
He accused IRS officials of refusing to honestly debate his points and said the government resorted to "threats, evasions and accusations" to enforce the tax code.
"[IRS's] own law books expose the biggest financial fraud in history: The misrepresentation and misapplication of the federal income tax," he wrote.
U.S. Treasury officials say the views of those like Rose and other so-called "tax protesters" are fraudulent and misrepresentative of the tax code and the 16th Amendment, which authorized the income tax in 1913. Many activists claim the amendment was never properly ratified.
Some "tax protesters" say the system was initially established as a "voluntary system," but Treasury officials say the "'voluntary compliance' means that each of us is responsible for filing a tax return when required, and for determining and paying the correct amount of tax."
Also, the agency has a division specifically targeting "the portion of American taxpayers who willfully and intentionally violate their known legal duty of voluntarily filing income tax returns and/or paying the correct amount of income, employment or excise taxes," says a description posted on the Treasury Department's website.
"Seek expert advice before you subscribe to any scheme that offers instant wealth or exemption from your obligation as a United States Citizen to pay taxes," says the website.
But Rose isn't running a "scam," and he says he isn't hiding. In fact, he handed out "around 900" copies of his letter last month in front of IRS and Justice Department headquarters in Washington, "including hundreds of copies being personally handed to IRS and DOJ employees."
He also said he has published his letter as an "official notice" of his intentions in three papers The Honolulu Advertiser, the Idaho Observer and the Texas City Sun. He said other, larger papers The Tampa Tribune, The St. Petersburg Times, The Kansas City Star, Idaho Statesman and Great Falls Tribune refused to publish it, "even as a paid advertisement."
The IRS said the 2002 tax filing season was record-setting, with some 48.5 million taxpayers filing their returns electronically. In all, over 117.5 million people filed returns, up from 115.8 million in 2001.
The agency paid out nearly $150 billion in refunds to 77 million filers and said its website www.irs.gov received nearly 2 billion hits during tax season.
Just keep this in mind if you ever appeal to tax court: it is a court of record, not a court of law. If you try to raise any constitutional issues you will be handed your head and told that the court does not have subject matter jurisdiction. More likely than not the "judge" will give the government a summary judgment in its favor, with plenty of sanctions and penalties thrown in.
Also keep in mind that many tax court judges are former IRS agents. They put on batsuits and preside with all the trappings of an impartial forum with respect for the law and the Bill of Rights, but it is no such thing.
Tax courts were not created under Article III of the U.S. Constitution. Tax court was created to give ordinary Americans the illusion that they are getting justice under the current tax system. It's a sham and a direct descendent of the "star chambers" of the English monarchy.
The revolt is being worked on...
Check out Freedom Drive 2002 this fall. It's going to be a nationwide caravan of citizens descending on Washington to demand that the government answer to why it won't rein in the IRS and stop the illegal activities that are going on every day. Hell, if the gun-grabbers and the reparations conmen can have "Million Man" marches, why can't the most exploited group in America have one too?
OK: If I have to pay FILE a tax return, then Larken has to pay FILE a tax return, even though we feel the same way about the IRS and taxes.
LOL! Sounds like a casino billboard telling passersby that their slot machines pay out over $2 million dollars every day. (No mention of what they collect...)
The money "refunded" by the IRS is money they shouldn't have confiscated at gunpoint in the first place, and is money which the government, and not its rightful owners, collected interest on during the period it was in the government's possession. Note that the peasants get no interest, and certainly no penalty, when the government owes them money, but they have to pay high interest and worse penalties to the government when they didn'y pay enough.
Just another lash of the dictator's whip to keep the slaves moving along.
Sit back, take just a second, and re-read what you wrote above (excerpted here). Now.........think very, very carefully about the country in which you live and the words you wrote, including your characterization of this guy as a "knuckledragger".
I'd suggest you would have made a great little Nazi Party member.
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I accept, fully, your subsequent explanation and understand your position now......and can agree with you.
However, I never apologize for responding to something as it was written. I'm not a mind-reader, my friend. I'd suggest leaving out "knuckledragger" when you're not trying to belittle, demean, or otherwise make fun of someone. That would have helped immensely. If you aren't familiar with the current use of the term in today's liberal-dominated media, look around and ask around. That will help explain my reaction to what you wrote, for it truly set the tone.........
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