Hasn't America have many of these type of people? Having read Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS by Richard Yancey, his book is full of people who just don't believe they want to pay taxes.
Some turn violent (Timothy McVeigh), some barricade themselves waiting for a standoff. Some quietly pay, while some go to prison.
3
 1
|
Define many.
Fri Jan 26, 2007 at 09:13:16 PM EST
5.00 (informative, interesting)
|
For the most part, Americans tend to pay their taxes. Perhaps not totally happily, but voluntarily. The sad part is that even the government can only estimate what the tax gap (the delta between what was paid and what should have been paid) might be. A GAO estimate from 2005 said that the government failed to collect (pdf doc) between (US)$312 and $353 billion for the tax year 2001. That gap represented about 17 percent of what was totally owed, meaning that total voluntary tax receipts was about $1.7 trillion. Most of the gap was accounted by underreporting and underpayment (about $324 billion) and neither of these are handiwork of tax rebels like Brown. Brown's shtick was non-filing (and being fairly proud and loud about it). Non-filing of individual taxes in 2001 was estimated to account for a total of $28 billion in the shortfall.
There are a lot of people out there who claim to be experts on tax law who will suggest that a). the income tax is illegal, b). immoral, c). and doesn't have to be paid by anyone. These people usually earn a nice little income holding seminars teaching people how to avoid paying taxes entirely. It's a nice little income for some bum advice. As Urkel pointed out in the queue, those who claim you don't have to pay taxes "don't know what the facts is." The facts is:
- The income tax is legal.
- The IRS will eventually get you, especially if you are foolish enough to broadcast your victory over the IRS.
- The penalties are quite stiff, especially for flouting the law in such a manner.
But, the country is not overrun with violent tax resisters like Brown. There have been a few and they tend to gravitate to one of the various militia groups who make this country their home. They all spout their nonsense about "posse comitatus" and "sprinkling the tree of liberty with the blood of traitors." Somehow, I don't see a peaceful end for Brown. I just hope all those peaceniks and libertarians aren't around when the government brings the hammer down.
Illegitimi non carborundum.
4
3
|
Re: Define many.
Fri Jan 26, 2007 at 09:26:58 PM EST
4.50 (interesting)
|
Many as in almost everyone Yancey went after. Keep in mind he was handling cases that were the fringe, the last hope, the last stop for them all. He got many (if I would take a stab, about 15 cases in the book) not because there were many in the US, but many because that's all he dealt with. Didn't mean to be ambiguous so my apologies. :)
Somehow, I don't see a peaceful end for Brown.
Based on your sources quoting him, describing him, I don't either. The question now is will he go quietly when they come for him or David Karesh style of scorched earth (and I realize Karesh was invaded for different reasons).
Here's a reprint of an interview with Brown from 1994 where he even includes the baseball strike in the old conspiracy stewpot. And here's a blog full of goodies about Brown. The saddest thing about this case is that a paranoid nutjob like Brown could easily become yet another martyr for these fools.
Illegitimi non carborundum.
Because they haven't filed taxes since 1996, Brown and his wife face (US)$700,000 in unpaid taxes and decades in prison when they go up for sentencing in April.
If the last time Brown filed taxes was '96, presumably that was for the '95 tax year. That means that 11 tax years, including 2006, have passed since he paid taxes. Brown owes $700,000 in unpaid taxes. If I'm reading that correctly, that's not taxes on $700,000 worth of income over 11 years (which would mean that Brown pulled in a bit under $70,000 per annum), but $700,000 in taxes. He doesn't sound like a patriot to me, he sounds like a guy who makes a lot of money, and doesn't want to part with a cent of it.
The ones who worry the US Marshals are members from the anti-tax group, Constitutional Rangers (of which Brown is a national commander),
I always wonder who gives out the ranks in militia organizations. "Okay, Dave brought the beer, but it was Icehouse, sooooo, I'm thinking lieutenant. Next time pop for some Sam Adams, and we'll see about a promotion. Oh, and we're using Ed's garage for our meetings now, so he'll be a national commander."
In regione caecorum, rex est luscus.
...was a guy who, with his wife, had a cottage industry of "saving people millions" by giving weekend-long seminars (at $1,000 a head) telling people how the income tax was illegal, unconstitutional, etc., and assuring his "students" that he had never paid a dollar in income taxes.
The last part was true. His formula was very simple: He would refuse to file for three years. IRS internal regulations provided that criminal charges wouldn't be filed until a taxpayer had failed to file for three years. He and his wife would be charged, tried (at which he raised his "illegal, unconstitutional" arguments), convicted, and sentenced the 18 months in prison. The IRS would sieze their home. They would do their time.
Upon release they would give lectures for three years...
January 20, 2009. Justice becomes possible.
