Tax evader called leech, gets 30 months in prison

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Friday, May 23, 2003 | Torsten Ove

[Willie Green]

Convicted tax protester Karl Frank Kleinpaste was sentenced today to 30 months in federal prison after the judge scolded him for willfully not paying taxes and filing 49 frivolous pre-trial motions designed to waste the government's time.

Kleinpaste, a former Carnegie Mellon University computer programmer, hasn't paid his federal income taxes for nine years. Last year a jury convicted him of 10 counts of failure to file taxes and making false loan applications by sending banks fake tax forms indicating he did pay.

[whereasandsoforth]

30 months isn't the end of his troubles. The IRS can now file for each year on his behalf. The IRS can base there returns on a "reconstruction of lifestyle" to estimate what his income was in any given year. They can assess taxes, penalty and interest, compounded of course. This fool's life will be a living hell way after the 30 months are up. What a smuck!

[Aquinasfan]

...and published monthly newsletters featured on the DU website highlighting greedy American corporations.

Perfect.

[Gunslingr3]

Uh, we have other alternatives, you see. We keep electing legislators who impose these taxes. If you want lower taxes, work to elect folks who will do that. Apparently, the taxes aren't high enough to get people to do that yet.

So as long as your neighbors keep voting to fleece you, you'll put up with it? No limit? You realize that half the people pay almost no income taxes right now, right? What's their incentive to lower your taxes? That would lower their income.

I do not break laws. Period.

So what would you have done with Anne Frank's family? Just because it's law doesn't mean it's right. Are you sure everytime you've paid someone cash to do something (mow your lawn, babysit the kids, etc.) that all the income tax laws were strictly observed? Are you sure?

I work to change the ones I don't think are right. That, my friend, is the American way, and I'm an American who believes that our Constitution provides all the mechanisms we need to elect legislators to do what we want them to do.

What do you do when those elected legislators ignore the implicit restrictions that Constitution puts on their powers, and seeks to spend 2 trillion dollars however they please? I recall the 'American Way' included a lot of illegal protests against taxes and a lot of smuggling to avoid them.

So far, the real tax reformers haven't been getting elected, so you have your answer.

That's the reality, your neighbors are contented with voting to take your earnings, but it's not an answer as to what level that confiscation will hit before you balk and quit paying. Is there a limit in your mind? Is 50% too much? 75%? Anywhere shy of 100%? Or is it all ok if it's what your neighbor's democratically decide, and the legislator they elect dictates?

[MineralMan]

"30 months isn't the end of his troubles. The IRS can now file for each year on his behalf. The IRS can base there returns on a "reconstruction of lifestyle" to estimate what his income was in any given year. They can assess taxes, penalty and interest, compounded of course. This fool's life will be a living hell way after the 30 months are up. What a smuck!"

Bye, bye property, I guess. What a maroon! I do hope he doesn't have a family that's depending on him for support. If he does, then he's even a greater fool.

Oh well...it's his life. He made his choices and now he's reaping the consequences. No sympathy for him whatever.

[jpl]

If you're going to commit tax fraud, you've got to at least do it the right way, like Jesse Jackson.

[yatros from flatwater]

Ah, there's the rub. What IS Caesar's, anyway?

[Regulator]

There are about 10 million people in this country right now who don't pay. Most of them are from the country next door. They have no qualms about availing themselves of the benefits of taxation. No one prosecutes them for tax evasion (including the failure to pay the Payroll tax).

If he should rot, what about them?

[MineralMan]

"So what would you have done with Anne Frank's family? Just because it's law doesn't mean it's right. Are you sure everytime you've paid someone cash to do something (mow your lawn, babysit the kids, etc.) that all the income tax laws were strictly observed? Are you sure? "

There is a substantial difference between protecting a young Jewish girl from the Nazis than in not paying your taxes, my friend. If you cannot see that difference, I cannot carry on a converstation with you.

I do not hire people to mow my lawn. I have no children. If I have a job that I can't do myself, like roofing, I hire a contractor and pay with a check and insist on a receipt. I pay my taxes, but no more than I am required to pay. I keep meticulous records and file very well-prepared returns. At my current income level, I'm OK with my current taxation. If I make more, I'll have to pay more. Seems fair to me.

So, at what rate would you be willing to _pay_ your taxes, assuming that you do not do so now? The question works both ways, you see.

[MineralMan]

"No one prosecutes them for tax evasion (including the failure to pay the Payroll tax).
"

I'd say there's little we can do about the illegals. However, those that hire them are generally U.S. Citizens. How about we insist that they withhold taxes, as they do for everyone else? How about we insist they not hire illegals? Those are already the law, and should satisfy your concerns.

[ancient_geezer]

Convicted tax protester Karl Frank Kleinpaste was sentenced today to 30 months in federal prison after the judge scolded him for willfully not paying taxes and filing 49 frivolous pre-trial motions designed to waste the government's time.

Another moth playing in the flames,

United States v. Sloan, 939 F.2d 499 (7th Cir. 1991)
Argued that there is no law imposing a tax on income:

KANNE, Circuit Judge.

• Like moths to a flame, some people find themselves irresistibly drawn to the tax protestor movement's illusory claim that there is no legal requirement to pay federal income tax. And, like the moths, these people sometimes get burned. Lorin G. Sloan believed these claims and because he acted upon them now faces four months in a federal prison; there can be little doubt that he has been burned.

• The real tragedy of this case is the unconscionable waste of Mr. Sloan's time, resources, and emotion in continuing to pursue these wholly defective and unsuccessful arguments about the validity of the income tax laws of the United States. Despite our rejection of Mr. Sloan's legal analysis of the tax laws, we are not unmindful of the sincerity of his beliefs. On the other hand, we are less sure of the sincerity of the professional tax protestors who promote their views in literature and meetings to persons like Mr. Sloan, yet are unlikely ever to face the type of penalties incurred by him. It may be that our decision will not alter Mr. Sloan's views regarding the tax laws of this country, for he has stated that if we affirm his conviction without applying the law as he understands it, our decision will be "a sham to which I WILL NOT SUBMIT." It may also be that serving his sentence in prison will not alter Mr. Sloan's view. We hope this pessimistic assessment is incorrect.

• We AFFIRM the conviction of Lorin G. Sloan on all counts.

[Gunslingr3]

There is a substantial difference between protecting a young Jewish girl from the Nazis than in not paying your taxes, my friend.

You said you didn't break the law, does this mean there are some laws you would break?

So, at what rate would you be willing to _pay_ your taxes, assuming that you do not do so now? The question works both ways, you see.

Your assumption is false, and you still haven't answered aside from saying your current taxation is fine. Have you, or can you, concieve of a limit to what you would consider acceptable taxation, regardless of the democratic origin of its imposition?

[MineralMan]

And that's what all the courts have affirmed over and over again. It's the law of the land. Apparently, the feds _do_ have the ability to impose taxes on income. Anyone who says otherwise is incorrect, as these jail sentences demonstrate.

I admire civil disobedience, but that's not what most of the tax evader idiots are doing. Civil disobedience requires a public violation of the law, and a desire to be arrested for the violation. These evaders are privately flouting the law and only pretend.

Their arguments are bogus on their face, and the courts have demonstrated that again, and again. Under our Consitution, the Congress can lay any taxes they wish on citizens of this country. It's really, really simple.

[Cultural Jihad]

Us conservatives are really big on personal responsibility, and for the acceptance of the consequences of one's own actions. If you don't like the laws in a Free Republic your choices are many:

• Work to change them.
• Disobey them and pay the consequences
• Move somewhere else

Ain't freedom grand!? One of your options is not to gripe and whine like a liberal at the consequences to actions, though.

[mikenola]

I remember hearing somewhere that the US is the only country (in the 1st world anyway) the actually imprisons people for tax offenses. Does anyone know if that's true?

[MineralMan]

"You said you didn't break the law, does this mean there are some laws you would break? "

Yes, I did say that, and I do not. As far as I know, there are no laws in this country that are similar to the ones that affected the people who concealed Anne Frank. Were there such laws in the USA, I would be in the forefront of getting those laws thrown out, because they would be unconstitutional.

This is not Nazi Germany, and we do not live in an occupied country.

Your example is specious, for there are no such laws in this country. So, I obey the law. I recommend that others do the same.

If you seriously object to a law, then I recommend civil disobedience, where you publically break the law in order to be arrested. That's a good way to make your case and, if you can get enough people behind you, you can get that law changed.

But don't trot out the Anne Frank thing to me. We don't have laws that kill young Jewish girls in this country.

[MineralMan]

"Since you think its fair, then lets go to a voluntary tax payment system where you, and anyone else with your mindset, can give the government whatever you want, and then we who are tired of being robbed at gunpoint by your agents, can be left alone."

Sorry, but no. Taxes, to be fair, must apply to the _whole_ population. You don't get to skip your taxes because you don't like paying them. Sorry. I won't pay your share.

[Cultural Jihad]

My experience in arguing with those who jump all over tax protesters is that they essentially hate the fact that they themselves do not have the guts to throw off the yoke of government.

The fellow is not a tax protester, but a tax cheat. Since the purpose of FreeRepublic is not to advocate for tax evasion and tax cheating, let's ask the Admin Moderator if Jim Robinson "essentially hates the fact that he himself doesn't have the guts to throw off the yoke of government."