Don't pay your taxes...coming to a town near you.

The Daily Gazette | June 18, 2002 | Carl Strock

[1Old Pro]

The View From Here

Schulz stops paying taxes, defies IRS

By CARL STROCK

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I expected it would come to this, and now it has. My friend Bob Schulz of sue-the-government fame and reputation has declared that he will no longer pay his federal income tax.

In a letter to the IRS dated yesterday, he called the tax "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated by government against the working men and women of America" and said he's all done cooperating.

What's more, he told me by telephone from his home near Lake George, he is preparing to lead a national campaign urging others to stop filing returns. He will hit the road late this week or early next and drive cross-country spreading the message with the help of some 600 like-minded "coordinators" who have already enlisted in the cause.

The message is the basic Jeffersonian one of the rights of the People as opposed to over-reaching government, which has been the underlying theme of his activities since he was suing New York state over its devious borrowing practices. It was given new focus earlier this year at a hearing he held in Washington on the legality, or illegality, of the income tax.

The conclusion of that hearing, you will not be surprised to learn, is that the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, establishing the tax, was not properly ratified back in 1913, and the Internal Revenue Service, therefore, has no good foundation in law. The government has been conning us all these years.

It's a cause that Schulz got onto about three years ago, and he has pursued it since then with the same relentlessness that he demonstrated when he was badgering New York.

Since I talked to him earlier he has added to it the notion that the Federal Reserve System is part of the same sinister complex as the IRS.

"The income tax was instituted to provide lender security and guaranteed profits to this highly secretive, privately owned and unaccountable central banking system that has obtained absolute control over our country and the federal government," he wrote in his letter, sounding, I must say, as if he's gone over entirely to the kook wing of American politics.

"Most Americans are in a condition of continual economic peonage and slavery to the federal government and the privately owned Federal Reserve System," he postulated.

He said the Federal Reserve thing sounded like a "fringe issue" to him too when he first heard about it, but his own research has convinced him it's legitimate.

In responding to the perceived conspiracy to deprive us all of our liberty, he does not spare the rhetoric. "We must resort to force," he wrote to the IRS, making clear however that by force he means "a non-violent mass movement."

"An appeal to force and to the Creator is all that is left to us."

Of course this will lead to trouble.

"The civil strife is inevitable," he wrote. "Let it come! Let it come!"

Does he expect to wind up in prison as a result of his new position?

"I don't know what to expect," he says, though he obviously does not shrink from the prospect of a legal fight.

I certainly wish him the best with this battle, though in the meantime I will look to my interests by continuing to pay my own taxes.

The View From Here presents Carl Strock's personal commentary and appears on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Strock can be reached at 395-3085. The opinions of the newspaper appear in editorials on the Opinion Page every day.

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[Mr. Bird]

If someone comes to the US, they do not pay tax on income for the first seven years that they are here. If after seven years they are still here they must start paying income tax.

Are you sure you're not mistaken? I read a Cato study asserting that immigrants (as a group) pay more in income taxes in their first 5 years than they receive in benefits. Not only that, but immigrants pay social security taxes right off the bat; why wouldn't they pay income taxes? Could you point me to the source of your information?

[mvpel]

Misreading? How hard is it to misread this?

Part I (section 861 and following), subchapter N, chapter 1 of the Code, and the regulations thereunder determine the sources of income for purposes of the income tax.

An old legal maxim comes to mind:

Expressio unius est exclusio alterius.
"The statement of one thing is the exclusion of another."
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 1856

If you concede that "Section 861 and following determine the sources of income for purposes of the income tax," then you must also concede that there are no other sources of income for the purposes of the income tax.

[Alabama_Wild_Man]

Another "Kill the 16th Amendment" BUMP !! !!

[Bagehot]

I havent heard any reports from the front lately

LOL, nor will you.

I think he's on to something, if ten million people that filed last year fail to file this year, what can the Feds do? They can't jail everyone, and it will take them one hell of a long time to do the threatening mailings etc.If it delays payment by three months it will be worthwhile.

I can choose the amount of my witholding, and I'm thinking of choosing zero.

[dpa5923]

Urban Legend guy. Double check your source.

[YankeeReb]

I've heard several people advocating removing withholding so everyone will have to send in a check to the feds once a year to pay their 'fair share'. The powers-that-be certainly knew what they were doing when they instituted payroll deductions. Since people don't ever see the money, they don't miss it and, therefore, it cause them no pain to see that several hundred or several thousand dollar payment go out. I believe that if people had to send this in on their own, there would finally be a MASS uprising and refusal to pay but, alas, I don't believe it will ever happen. The power to tax is the power to destroy.

Exactly, as long as people don't actually write out checks for Income Tax and FICA they don't see it. This is why it's very difficult to get classified as a contractor as opposed to an employee. Anyone who's ever worked as a 1099 knows how painful it is to come up with that money on a quarterly basis.

The minute witholding is ended, and people start writing checks directly to the IRS, that's when real tax reform will happen.

[Alabama_Wild_Man]

"...witholding is ended..."

One way that I heard that defined - if one is unable to control how much is being deducted (aka: Robbed) from their paycheck - -- - that is tantamont to Slavery . . .

[Too_Bad]

None of us pay taxes. We pay our mortgage, and credit card bills, but our taxes are confiscated by our employers before we ever see our checks.

Wage slave propaganda -- haven't you heard of estimated income taxes??

[mdwakeup]

What you posted and what I posted do not conflict. What I said was that 861 et.seq. lay out how you determine the source of income (i.e., whether it is US-source or foreign-source). It has to do with how such income is taxed, not whether such income is taxable.

The general rule on what constitutes income is in section 61 of the code, which provides that, "Except as otherwise provided in this subtitle [the federal income tax law], gross income means all income from whatever source derived . . . " I don't think there's a lot of ambiguity there!

[KentuckyWoman]

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times:

Slaves with an illusion of freedom are still slaves. A democracy (which IS what we've allowed our Nation to become to a large extent) can only last until the masses discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. This is EXACTLY what has happened and we are being forced (through threat of imprisonment and violence) to participate in our own demise.

[Alabama_Wild_Man]

"...Slaves with an illusion of freedom are still slaves..."

** *** ** *** ** *** ** *** ** *** ** *** **

Yes, M'Lady, correctimundo !! !!

[Mad Dawgg]

"The minute witholding is ended, and people start writing checks directly to the IRS, that's when real tax reform will happen."

BINGO!

I watched a maggot-infested-leftwing-liberal-to-the core-hippie vanish in a puff of frustration and betrayal to be replaced by a stone-cold-fiscal-conservative when he had to write his first quaterly check!

I still have a chuckle with him over his conversion occasionally!

BTW he voted for Bush last election and is upset with him over the Steel Tariifs.

Ahhh, the power of Capitalism to cleanse the soul is truly awe inspiring!

[Freemeorkillme]

Ask Irwin Schiff

One major difference between the two(if I recall correctly), is that Irwin Schiff does file a return now, however, listing $0. He learned from a prior experience that earned him federal accomodations in the early 80's and had since changed his strategy to filling a return. Check it out. I could be wrong. Just my 2cents.

[StriperSniper]

"The civil strife is inevitable," he wrote. "Let it come! Let it come!"

Yup. Unfortunately, that is the only way, we're too far gone.

[Teacher317]

Whether 'properly ratified' or not, the 16th Amendment was the worst American offense to Liberty in the 20th Century.

[Teacher317]

Wage slave propaganda -- haven't you heard of estimated income taxes??

This somehow makes the basic premise of the 16th Amendment (that you are not entitled to the entire product of your labor) better?

[TexasRepublic]

Governments will crush anyone that opposes them, unless there is an overwhelming public reaction against their oppresive rule. The tax opponents may be right, but John Q. Sixpack, et all, haven't "got it" and picked up the pitchforks yet. Until then, the individual would be advised to pay taxes.

[Too_Bad]

This somehow makes the basic premise of the 16th Amendment (that you are not entitled to the entire product of your labor) better?

Not at all. Landof Lincoln said:

"None of us pay taxes. We pay our mortgage, and credit card bills, but our taxes are confiscated by our employers before we ever see our checks. "

That statement is inaccurate. He/she is unaware that many tax payers are not "employees".

[babylonian]

Slaves with an illusion of freedom are still slaves.

You can say that again! Our "freedom" has always been an illusion.

[steve-b]

I've heard several people advocating removing withholding so everyone will have to send in a check to the feds once a year to pay their 'fair share'.

It would be simpler to put a drop box at the line in front of the voting booth.