Why These Arguments Can’t Help You
We’re going to show you here why these arguments can’t help you -- and most likely will do you harm -- whether or not they are true. That is, we’re going to suppose for the sake of argument that these (demonstrably false) theories are true: In other words, we’re going to pretend that the Internal Revenue Code has no effect, and that all actions undertaken pursuant to it are illegal.
The problem is that NO COURT HAS HELD OR WILL HOLD THAT THE INTERNAL REVENUE CODE IS INVALID OR THAT THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE LACKS POWER TO LEVY OR COLLECT INCOME TAXES. See, e.g., Joseph Adam's The Tax Protestor Hall of Fame. Literally hundreds of folks have tried these arguments over the last several years. ALL of these folks have lost, and many of these folks have been sanctioned or fined for advocating a "frivolous" theory to the court.
So, let’s assume that you buy some of this hokey material, and you either don’t declare your income to the IRS, under whatever reason, or else you hide your money in a "Pure Trust" or other fictional legal unicorn. The IRS then comes and assesses taxes and stiff fines on you and garnishes your wages and seizes all your assets to pay for the assessments and fines. You then go into court and assert whatever screwy theory you’ve been sold as your defense against the IRS. Now, you might be (in your own mind) 100% correct. The problem is that there is a 100% chance that the court will not agree with you, and you will lose everything you have.
So, the upshot is: Even if you believe this anti-IRS crap, don’t use these theories for planning because they have a 100% chance of failure. These theories are not going to protect your assets, period, and anyone who tells you differently is a liar. You are going to get fined and sanctioned, and these fines and sanctions most likely will not be dischargeable in a bankruptcy proceeding, so they will follow you for your entire life until paid.
Zero Success Rate
These various constitutional and anti-IRS theories have had a ZERO success rate. This is evidenced by the following:
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These theories have an equally non-impressive track record for thwarting the IRS:
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Is this really something you want to use for tax planning or to hide your assets behind? If so, then you need to get a refund on that lobotomy. The fact is that these theories have not been successful in even a single case and there is no reason to believe that they will ever be successful.
U.S. v. Long -- The Dead Sea Scroll of Tax Protestors
Tax protestors will ALWAYS mention the case of U.S. v. Lloyd Long as the "victory" which "proves" that income taxes don't have to be paid. The truth:
First -- Long lost his civil case and was still liable for his taxes. The case the protestors stupidly refer to is Long's criminal case for tax evasion, which he won on, essentially, the dubious theory that he was too dumb to understand that he had to pay taxes. But Long -- like so many others -- completely failed to prove that he wasn't liable for his taxes.
Second -- In every case since Long the tax protestors have lost. They have had NO victories since then, and can't point to any, (not that Long can really even be characterized as a victory since he lost his battle to prove he wasn't liable for taxes). So if the Long case is precedent for anything, which is doubtful, it sure isn't very good precedent because NO SUBSEQUENT COURT HAS RELIED ON THE LONG CASE FOR THE ABSURD PROPOSITION THAT THERE IS NO LIABILITY FOR TAXES.
NOTE: By like token, we often get hate e-mail from tax protestors who send us cases from around the turn of the century (i.e., before the 16th Amendment authorized the income tax) or from the 1930s and 1940s (i.e., before the modern IRS code). Apparently, they can't figure out that LAWS CHANGE. And they NEVER send us cases from this decade -- the reason being that every case from this decade (and the last, for that matter) has been a loser for tax protestors.
So, if someone mentions "U.S. v. Long" to you as justification why you should not pay your tax -- RUN!!! If Long is their basis, then they have no basis, period the end.
Arguments that "Others Aren't Paying Taxes, Either"
Tax protestor materials have wild quotes that there are "40 million" nonfilers, and correctly attribute this figures to the IRS. What they don't tell you is that most of the nonfilers eventually file, or are defunct corporations and trusts which have a tax ID number and haven't reported for years, dead persons who haven't been taken off the rolls, etc. After you sift through the figures you will see that the actual number of individual nonfilers is very low, believed to be less than 10,000 per year, and not so large a number that the IRS can't eventually chase them all. And many of these are persons in very low wage jobs -- i.e., immigrant farm workers, etc. -- whom the IRS often determines isn't worth their time to chase.
Somewhat humorously, in several cases where the IRS has gone after promoters of "Don't File" schemes, it was determined that the promoter -- while advocating not filing returns -- had been filing their returns all along. This really isn't surprising, since most of the promoters will secretly confide that they really don't believe these theories either, but it makes them good money.
Don’t Be A Sucker
As shown above, these wacky theories can not and will not give you legitimate tax savings or otherwise protect your assets from the IRS. So why buy them? The fact is that the sale of these materials is nothing more-or-less than a scam, just like those books which tell people how to guess which numbers will next be picked at the lottery (and about as accurate). If you buy these materials, you are a sucker and you've been already scammed. Don't now make the mistake of following through on the advice, as about as likely as not you're likely to end up in prison on charges of tax evasion.
Links to Proof of Falsity of Theories
We are not in the business of disputing these stupid Constitutional theories -- which isn't hard to do, but instead we leave that to others. The following several (there are more) well-researched non-government private websites demonstrate the falsity of these wacky anti-IRS theories and you should refer to them:
Our Tax Protestor Theories De-Bunked Page
Daniel B. Evans' The Tax Protestor FAQ -- http://evans-legal.com/ dan/ tpfaq.html
Falgoust's Tax Protestor Myths -- http://www.geocities.com/ NapaValley/ 3578 /taxmyth.html
Joseph G. Adams' Tax Protestor Hall of Fame -- http://politicalhobbyist.com/ debunked/
Bob Sommers' The Tax Protestor Movement: Proof that P.T. Barnum was Right -- http://www.taxprophet.com/ hot/ feb96.html
Bob Sommers' The Tax Protestor Movement: Still Batting Zero -- http://www.taxprophet.com/ hot/ June98.html
Don’t Contact Us
For some reason, people feel compelled to call us or send us e-mail to argue about the legitimacy of these theories. Well don’t, because we just don’t care. As shown above, IT DOESN’T MATTER whether you are right or wrong because even if you are right (you're not) these theories aren’t going to help you anyhow, since no court will recognize these theories and they will not stop the IRS from levying taxes, fines, and sanctions, or from seizing your property. The only thing which matters to us is whether or not stuff works, and these theories have proven "in spades" that they don't.
Visit Our Tax Protestor Theories De-Bunked Page
Visit the Quatloos! Cyber-Museum of Scams & Frauds
Tax Protestor Gallery
Know of other court opinions where these wacko theories were pitched? Send them to us by our online form -- we always enjoy a good laugh! http://www.quatloos.com/taxscams/taxprot.htm
Avoid These Tax Protest Scams Like You Would Avoid The Plague
On a daily basis, we learn about various tax protest scams who will only succeed in leading you down a path of destruction. All of them perpetuate over the Internet. They run from the utterly absurd to the completely ridiculous, from the convicted felons to the merely looney. The bottom line is that ALL of the arguments are complete works of fiction and none have any validity whatsoever. What is certainly most amusing is how each of sites tells you why the other supposed tax experts are quacks. Do yourself a huge favor. Please avoid all of these individuals, organizations and their sites as they are all woefully wrong and will run for the hills when the IRS starts taking your possessions or brings criminal charges against you.
This list and page will be updated as time permits.
http://www.etaxes.com/tax_scams.html