Free Republic

This article is about taxes, which is, without question, the most boring subject in the known universe. So why even bother to bring it up? In an attempt to make April 15 just another beautiful spring day for all Americans, Georgia Congressman John Linder and his buddy, libertarian talk show host Neal Boortz, have devised a "fair tax" plan. This plan abolishes the IRS and income taxes in favor of a national sales tax, which, they say, will be about 23 cents to every dollar. Both sides of this issue have hotly debated how well this "fair tax" would work...

Lynne Meredith, who sold books and gave seminars on tax avoidance, is sentenced for conspiring to defraud the IRS. By David Rosenzweig, Times Staff Writer Lynne Meredith, a flamboyant tax protester whose bestselling books and seminars promoted the notion that paying taxes was voluntary, was sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison Monday for conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and failing to file personal income tax returns. Four associates who helped Meredith operate her Southern California-based We the People organization received sentences ranging from 20 months to five years in prison. "Your honor, I'm not a...

Tax protester faces kiddie-porn charges A Montgomery County man who has publicly dared the Internal Revenue Service to arrest him for not paying federal income taxes was charged yesterday in federal court in Philadelphia with possession of child pornography. IRS agents seized 10 computers from the Hollywood home of Larken Rose more than a year ago, but have yet to charge the tax protester with any tax crimes. The child pornography was "inadvertently discovered" by an IRS agent who was examining one of the computer's hard drives, an FBI agent alleged. FBI agent Beatrice A. DeFazio said the computer images...

Defiant tax protester gets seven-year sentence By Toni Heinzl FORT WORTH - He calls himself a "Christian patriot" and a "political prisoner." Convicted in January on 29 counts of violating U.S. income tax laws, Bedford businessman Richard Simkanin remained defiant in his anti-government stance at his sentencing Friday. Simkanin, 59, told U.S. District Judge John McBryde that after spending thousands of hours studying federal tax laws, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, he concluded that he did not agree with the tax laws. But McBryde had heard enough. Going beyond federal sentencing guidelines, McBryde sentenced Simkanin to seven years...

Tax Protester Tells Federal Court That He Is Delusional By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON LOS ANGELES, Feb. 6 - Irwin Schiff, the nation's best-known promoter of claims that no law requires the payment of income taxes, suffers from delusions including a fantasy that he alone can properly interpret the tax laws, according to papers that he had his lawyers file in Federal District Court in Las Vegas. The filing, made on Jan. 23, is highly unusual, especially in a civil lawsuit. The document asks a judge to deny a summary judgment in favor of the Justice Department that Mr. Schiff owes...