Young Earth Creationists Whipsawed By IRS

Forbes ^ | Peter J Reilly

[Joseph Harrolds]

When I write about some Tax Court decisions, the title “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” seems to be called for.  I don’t use it, because it would get old pretty quickly and I can’t have that.  Speaking of things getting old, that is a behind the scenes question in the recent case of Jo Delia Hovind.  She and her husband Kent E Hovind were interested in the age of the earth.

...

Turns out there is money to made in promoting young earth creationism.  The Hovinds became tax paying job creators.  Only they had some trouble with the tax paying part.  They found a way to formalize not paying taxes:

In 2002 Mr. Hovind decided to change the ownership structure of CSE and to that end contacted Glenn Stoll, the director of Remedies at Law. Mr. Stoll directed clients to form personal ministries which, once created, could be used to form ministerial trusts to manage ministry assets including management of assets on a tax-free basis. Mr. Stoll directed clients to associate each ministerial trust with a corporation sole.

It did not work out very well.  Mr. Hovind is in prison now.  Some say it is religious persecution.

[driftdiver]

Render unto Ceasar, especially when Ceaser just hired 16 gazillion new auditors.

[GraceG]

Those who Render Unto Ceasar will be Rendered BY Ceasar!

[Madam Theophilus]

I’m sure the IRS has found quite a few evolutionists who have avoided paying their taxes as well.

THE POINT - Scientific theories relating to the age of the earth have no relationship to whether persons pay their taxes or not!

[Cowman]

This is not an issue of revenue or even of money. It is an issue of freedom and of privacy. The direct taxation of income gives government bureaucrats access to complete knowledge of nearly all aspects of your life because they need to collect data on where you make money, where you spend money, to which that money is given in charity, where that money is invested or placed in trust. How much income is generated from those trusts, and a myriad of other things they can use to control your behavior.

If this excuse for societal control was removed then freedom would increase exponentially. If (as was intended by the founders) revenue were collected in a way that was COMPLETELY anonymous. The social engineers in the government would not be able to control anybody

We need to stop framing the argument in financial terms and start making this a freedom issue because that is where the battle needs to be fought.

BTW the Bureau of internal revenue was not disbanded in 1872 when the first income tax was abolished because congress deemed them necessary to ensure that the current “revenue” was sufficiently collected.
The BIR then became the IRS in 1913 when the current income tax was instituted

[JoeFromSidney]

I have no brief for Young Earth Creationists. However, I find it strange that the Constitution provides enough "privacy" to allow a woman to kill her unborn child, yet doesn't provide any privacy regarding my income and expenses.