Posted on 04/30/2004 7:39:02 PM PDT by Central Scrutiniser
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 in prison and ordered him to pay $302,000 in restitution to the government.
In explaining the tough sentence, McBryde cited Simkanin's history of radical anti-government beliefs and his "contempt and disrespect" for the federal government and the federal courts.
"He and those who share his views have a cultlike belief that laws that are generally accepted by citizens of the United States are not applicable to them," McBryde said. "The defendant has entrenched himself in anti-government groups."
McBryde said Simkanin would continue to violate income tax laws. The judge recalled that Simkanin threatened to kill federal judges and that he surrendered his Texas driver's license but continued to drive with a home-made ID card.
On Jan. 7, a federal jury convicted Simkanin on 10 felony counts of failing to withhold about $139,000 in taxes from employees' wages at his company, Arrow Custom Plastics, and 15 felony counts of filing false tax refund claims for about $235,000.
He was also found guilty of four misdemeanor counts for failing to file individual income tax returns from 1998 to 2001. Simkanin had an estimated gross income of about $410,000 during these years, prosecutors said.
Arch McColl, the Dallas lawyer representing Simkanin, said he would appeal. McColl had asked for a sentence of 41 months at the low end of the federal guidelines. He described Simkanin as a non-conformist American in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau.
"He has a sincere, well thought-out position that is at odds with the government position," McColl said. "Reasonable people disagree about the tax laws. My client is an American citizen who, like Thoreau, walked to the beat of a different drummer."
But prosecutors pointed to Simkanin's long history of law-breaking, saying the last time he filed complete individual and corporate federal income tax returns dates back to the mid-1990s.
"We're going to have chaos in this country if individual citizens are allowed to decide unilaterally which laws are constitutional and which aren't," Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jarvis said. "The sentence for Mr. Simkanin was quite severe and appropriate."
Jarvis noted that Simkanin's defiance of the federal courts continued even after his conviction in January.
In a court judgment entered March 11, Simkanin and Arrow Custom Plastics' new owner, James Keffer, to whom he sold the business Feb. 17, agreed to file employment tax returns for the years 2000 through 2003 within 30 days. The judgment was issued by McBryde in a civil action filed by tax attorneys for the Justice Department in December to force Simkanin to comply with tax laws.
But the requested tax documents were not filed by the deadline, government lawyers said in a motion on April 21, asking McBryde to hold Simkanin and Keffer in contempt.
Simkanin rose to fame in tax protester circles -- and gained the attention of the IRS -- in March 2001 when he appeared in a full-page ad in USA Today with a group of like-minded citizens who announced their opposition to the federal income taxes. Later that year, prosecutors sent Simkanin a target letter notifying him that he was under investigation.
The group behind the ad, We the People, soon portrayed Simkanin as a martyr for the cause of freedom from IRS tyranny.
While under investigation, Simkanin posted a warning on his Web site that spoke of the "fury of a fire" that would consume his adversaries. He wrote to the Treasury secretary that he had repatriated himself from the United States to the "Republic of Texas." He vowed to ignore the laws of the United States.
While tax protesters from the We the People group crowded McBryde's courtroom during the trial, hardly a handful of supporters showed up for his sentencing.
Wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and a blue jacket, Simkanin invoked Scripture, James 5:4. In his view, the passage means that a laborer's wages are withheld through fraud.
His face showed an expression of defiance and sadness. He expressed no remorse for his actions but regretted the effect of his prison sentence on his severely ill wife, Carole.
"I do apologize to my wife for what she will go through in my absence," Simkanin said.
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I think that if the government was held to it's Constitutional powers and duties, we would need a lot less money to run it.
True, unfortunately the power to tax is one of the most fundament authorities of the national government under the Constitution:
- "The difference between a federal and national government, as it relates to the OPERATION OF THE GOVERNMENT, is supposed to consist in this, that in the former the powers operate on the political bodies composing the Confederacy, in their political capacities; in the latter, on the individual citizens composing the nation, in their individual capacities. On trying the Constitution by this criterion, it falls under the NATIONAL, not the FEDERAL character;"
Anti-Federalist Papers #3 NEW CONSTITUTION CREATES A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT;
- There are but two modes by which men are connected in society, the one which operates on individuals, this always has been, and ought still to be called, national government; the other which binds States and governments together (not corporations, for there is no considerable nation on earth, despotic, monarchical, or republican, that does not contain many subordinate corporations with various constitutions) this last has heretofore been denominated a league or confederacy. The term federalists is therefore improperly applied to themselves, by the friends and supporters of the proposed constitution.
- "The change relating to taxation may be regarded as the most important; and yet the present [Continental] sic Congress have as complete authority to REQUIRE of the States indefinite supplies of money for the common defense and general welfare, as the future [Constitutional] Congress will have to require them of individual citizens;
Constitution for the United States of America:
- Article VI: "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."
- Article I Section 8: "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises,
to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States;
but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; "
- Article I Section 8: "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof."
And holding the Congress, to the constitution in the exercise of its other powers has been woefully lacking as regards the electorate demanding more and who keep those Congress Critter's in office.
... While under investigation, Simkanin posted a warning on his Web site that spoke of the "fury of a fire" that would consume his adversaries. He wrote to the Treasury secretary that he had repatriated himself from the United States to the "Republic of Texas." He vowed to ignore the laws of the United States.
Anyone know what his logon name is?
Its a mail filing code. It tells the computer what package of forms to send. Only an idiot or at risk of being redundant, a tax protestor, would think that if they don't mail them tax forms they aren't taxable.
The IRS simply agreed your code was 0, not that your not liable. You heard what you wanted to hear.
Well, you can find some of his bestest buddies and penpals at LP and FU. They have been leading the parade for this guy since day one. But, I suspect that they have been doing a lot of shredding and back tax paying lately.
Look, its one thing to fight against excessive taxation, as conservatives we all do that, but to take a very strident and unlawful stand that you won't pay your taxes, and then advertise it to the world is just plain dumbass stupid. This guy reminds me of the jerk roommate I had in college that stiffed me and bailed, I'd want to extract the cash from him.
Here is a clue: THE JUDGE WORKS FOR THE GOVERNMENT!
So? Any protestation that taxes do not apply to you is then nonsense:
Notice, in both evaluations exactly the same result will be obtained from the Courts.
Furthermore:
1) Federal judges are appointed for life, and good behaviour. The pay cannot be taken away from them.
2) Federal judges have ruled their pay is subject to income tax, though at any time they could rule otherwise if they so desired and believed otherwise.
3) It would be in the personal and financial interest for the courts to rule that the income tax is unconstitutional and illegal. In so doing the law would be void, the IRS which is authorised under that law would ceased to exist or have power over the people or the courts.
4) Judges are ruling against there own personal interest in support the income tax against you in the courtroom. For if it did not apply to you, it cannot apply to them.
Something is lacking in your protest that judges work for the government, and it is called reason and credibility. It does not pass the test of Occum's razor, nor the laugh test.
"My, here I am talking endlessly about myself all the time. Let's let you talk for a while. Tell me, what do you think of me?"
And Congress gives authority to the IRS to write the regulations to enact the intent of congress, it created the tax courts to intepret the law and it provides the appeals courts to have the final say on what a law means before it goes to the SC.
No. I stuck my neck out,and they had the chance to stick it to me, but didn't. They simply mailed me a check for the amount that was withheld. I still have the check. I haven't decided whether to cash it, or keep it as a souvenir. Veni Vidi Vici. Cogito, ergo Sum.
In other words, institutions of self-governance which are the bane of a Me-ocracy.
I'm sure you can read section 1 and regulation 1.1 and see for yourself. They are rather clear to 99.9% of the people who read them. The .1% of those folks who think the fringe on a flag have something to do with the law can see all sorts of pretty colors in section 1 and reg 1.1. They can be treated by a good nuerosurgeon.
Tax protestors are hilarious, there are a cadre of them at another site that sell worthless currency to trade in, and run "free energy" scams and all kinds of grifting crap. One group, run by convicted felon John Kotmair will sell you all kinds of info to cheat on your taxes, but you have to send his patriot group unsigned money orders! People actually fall for it, its more fun to cheat than to do the right thing...
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