Posted on 06/07/2005 4:52:46 PM PDT by Lurking Libertarian
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 conspirator. I'm a constitutionalist," Meredith, 55, told U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson as she fought back tears.
Meredith, who once drove a Corvette convertible with a vanity plate reading TAXREBL, said she still believes the federal government has no power to levy taxes on private citizens.
From 1991 to 2002, Meredith traveled the country giving seminars and promoting three books she had written, advising people that they could avoid paying taxes by placing their assets in so-called pure trusts.
She and her staff sold the pure trusts, along with fabricated tax identification numbers, for as much as $1,000, according to testimony in their 13-week trial last year.
IRS officials estimated that Meredith's organization netted more than $9.2 million from the seminars and books.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
From the article:
Prosecutors also accused Meredith of directing clients to file frivolous tax returns that listed no reportable income. Many who did so were later subjected to penalties, liens and wage garnishments by the IRS. Several went to jail for failing to pay taxes.
When those dunned by the IRS went back to We the People for help, they were given letters to send to the tax collector. The letters proved useless.
In one of her books, titled "How to Cook a Vulture," Meredith promised readers she could show them how to get the IRS to stop collection activities, how to successfully sue the IRS and how to get the agency to write a letter stating, "We agree that you are not liable for filing a 1040 form."
In a sentencing memorandum filed with the court, Assistant U.S. Attys. Alicia Villarreal and Brian Hershman argued that Meredith was the leader of a vast scam that victimized hundreds, if not thousands, of gullible people.
you can fight the goverment, but you WONT WIN
Don't mess with the IRS. You'll be better treated if you rob a bank or commit rape or murder.
Just keep in mind, every judge, prosecutor, FBI agent, and policement is paid with your tax dollars. They don't take a friendly view of people who want to undermine their salaries.
Especially, don't tell the IRS you are a tax protestor. They don't like that.
Unless one is arguing the 16th amendment was not properly ratified, I am not sure what part of the language in that part of the constitution is not clear to people like this.
If I had been on Ms. Meredith's jury....it would be hung....no way would I convict her.
I knew three people that would disagree. My grandfather and his two brothers. My grandfather was born in 1900 and died in 1989 and never paid a cent, state or federal. Nor did they ever pay any silly withholdings like SS.
Then again, they lived out in the sticks, had modest homes and vehicles that weren’t worth much, never had bank accounts or credit lines/cards, were self-employed, and the bulk of their business was done through bartering.
Oh – and while it was their claim that failure to pay wasn’t illegal – failure to FILE *IS*. They submitted returns, just didn’t sign them because they felt doing so would violate their Fifth Amendment rights. They had a s-house lawyer (IMO) that included a limited power of attorney with the return authorizing anyone that felt otherwise to sign it on their behalf. To my knowledge, no one ever did. Nor did they ever try to collect a cent to my knowledge.
After he died, my dad and his two brothers went through the house thoroughly. Having grown up poor and living through the depression, he managed to accumulate a lot more money (cash) in different hiding places than most people could probably imagine.
The BLM seized the land and remains of his house. He had purchased it in the late 40’s in a handshake deal and it was never properly recorded with the county, so they considered him a squatter. The other reason they seized it is because he had never bothered to pay property taxes. (Which is interesting... since they considered him a squatter and not an owner...)
Well, then the other thing he didn’t do is write a book or conduct a seminar. When you’re “minding your own business” you need to mind your own business and not try to antagonize a governmental entity into taking notice of you.
And even without the 16th, it would still be legal to lay an income tax on wages and salaries. The 16th was only necesary in order to also impose the tax on rents, royalties, interest and dividends.
You can sometimes win-- part of my law practice is representing people in trouble with the IRS-- but not by arguing nonsense like "filing taxes is voluntary" or "wages aren't income."
Extortionists!! (The IRS, not these people.)
"These people" raised $9.2 million from gullible folks, promising that they would sell them a way to legally avoid taxes. The suckers lost their bank accounts, or went to jail, when the IRS caught up with them, and Meredith's promised help never materialized. Save your sympathy for the victims of her confidence game.
I read up on this woman. She's not your run-of-the-mill conscientious objector to income taxes, she ran quite a lucrative scheme.
I don't feel sorry for any of them - ESPECIALLY THE IRS!!!
Maybe just ignoring the IRS would work; ater all, 20 million illegal immigrants can't be wrong...
This organization had many followers who often posted here on FR encouraging others to follow them to jail. They are lower than pond scum.
Emotion about the tax law aside, this was a scam, and these scum were con artists. Throw away the key, we're safert with these parasites in jail then having them roam society conning fools and greedy people.
Well.... come to think of it...
Still in business
http://www.givemeliberty.org/
10 years in jail sucking on the government teat for free room and board, not having to work, and not having to pay income taxes.
Sounds like this guy got a great deal.
This is the single biggest reason she got slammed.
And no, if you read the Constitution with the intent of the Founders, there IS no authority for the Federal government to tax the people.
Actually, they are and they have some other tricky wordings that claim that some of the other things that the IRS does is illegal. Such as they "never" filed the proper paperwork to get the 1040 form approved for fedgov use.
Paul
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