Posted on 07/20/2007 10:09:53 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Tax evading couple refuses to be jailed
PLAINFIELD, N.H., July 20 (UPI) -- New Hampshire's motto "Live Free or Die" has special meaning for a Plainfield couple that is refusing to report to jail for income tax evasion.
Ed and Elaine Brown have been holed up in their home for the past six months daring law enforcement officials to apprehend them to serve a five-year prison sentence, The Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
The Browns stopped paying income taxes in 1996 claiming that ordinary labor cannot be taxed.
In January, a judge convicted the couple of conspiring to evade paying taxes on $1.9 million from Elaine Brown's dentistry practice and sentenced them to five years in prison.
Instead of complying, the Browns retreated to their solar-paneled home that features a watchtower and thick concrete walls.
They say they're in a battle for freedom and it might end in bloodshed.
"I'd die fighting rather than live in slavery," said Elaine, 66. "This isn't just taxes."
"There's no more America," said Ed, 64. "It's already gone."
Put a fence around the place and call it a prison.
Security’ll do that to you.
I wish they really would do that. It would be a heck of a lot cheaper than putting them in a real prison, and of course, the latter is entirely paid for by the taxpayers. But of course, the objective of the enforcers of the current tax laws isn’t to save the taxpayers’ money.
Sounds like they thought donations to the DNC were tax deductable.
It is really sad when the government can extract money from you violently at the point of a gun. The tax system needs to be more voluntary and less violent.
The solution I’ve been proposing is to eliminate federal income tax completely and replace it with a tax directly to the states, apportioned according to how many congressional representatives each has. No pay, no vote. Then let each state come up with its own system for how to collect the money.
The competition between states would be healthy, and the least onerous taxation systems would take over, as states would need to make their tax system compete with other states. High personal and corporate income taxes would drive productive people and businesses away — much more so than now, since now when a person or company is choosing what state to locate in (or leave), only the state and local tax components vary from state to state. If the tab for the federal government’s funding was also part of the state taxation system, the differences between states could be huge and have a much bigger effect on people’s location decisions.
If the dollar amount of the per-congressperson tax is set too high by Congress, states would just opt out of voting, and some would also opt out of even having congressional representatives, or at least of paying them (and their pay should come from the state governments, not the federal governments). This system would give all congressional representatives plenty of incentive to keep taxes low and shrink the federal government, since their own and other representatives’ constituents can simply turn off the tap any time the bill is too high.
Some days I really regret the founders slogan was no taxation without representation.
Should have been simply “no taxation”
Some days I really regret the founders slogan was no taxation without representation.
Should have been simply “no taxation”
Before the 16th amendment they may have had a point that wages for labor merely represented an exchange and not gain. However, there is a 16th amendment so their point is lost.
..small nit....call it a compound and NOW you have the justification to burn the place to the ground, women, children and innocent men be damned.
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