Free Republic

...All of that human and financial capital expended for CCongress 2009 - two weeks at a hotel, live video feeds, etc. - focused on a handful of issues like gun control; income tax; and the federal reserve system which, when distilled, amount to little more than a reassertion of states' rights over federal authority. And Robert Schulz, Founder and Chairman of the "We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education," who conceived and spearheaded the drive for a CCongress 2009, has been actively pursuing strategies to publicize these issues for more than 15 (fifteen) years. With this one exception. The mission...

A former IRS agent who believes citizens are not required to pay federal income taxes will appear in U.S. District Court in Sacramento tomorrow to face charges for numerous alleged tax crimes. Joseph Banister, 41, a leading figure in the "tax honesty" movement, was taken into custody Nov. 19 by IRS agents and released on $25,000 bond after pleading not guilty. A Certified Public Accountant in San Jose, Calif., Banister has been telling his clients they don't need to file federal income tax returns because the 16th Amendment, which gives Congress "power to lay and collect taxes on incomes," was...

Court: Taxpayers can ignore IRS summonses Ruling says action has no teeth without federal court order A U.S. appeals court has ruled the IRS cannot compel taxpayers to turn over personal and private property without a federal court order and that taxpayers can ignore the agencies summonses until actual enforcement action is taken. In the case Schulz v. IRS, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled: ... absent an effort to seek enforcement through a federal court, IRS summonses apply no force to taxpayers, and no consequence whatever can befall a taxpayer who refuses, ignores, or otherwise does...

IRS Loses A Big One Memphis Pilot Acquitted of Tax Evasion Charged With Filing "False" W-4s On Friday, a Memphis federal jury acquitted FedEx pilot Vernice Kuglin of six counts of felony Tax Evasion and Willful Failure to File tax returns. Ms. Kuglin's attorneys, Tax Honesty Movement barristers Larry Becraft and Robert G. Bernhoft, told reporters that Kuglin was indicted seven months ago and had refused to plead the case out for a lesser sentence. During her testimony Kuglin testified that since 1995, she had sent numerous letters to the IRS requesting that they inform her of what law required...

IRS Loses A Big One Memphis Pilot Acquitted of Tax Evasion Charged With Filing "False" W-4s On Friday, a Memphis federal jury acquitted FedEx pilot Vernice Kuglin of six counts of felony Tax Evasion and Willful Failure to File tax returns. Ms. Kuglin's attorneys, Tax Honesty Movement barristers Larry Becraft and Robert G. Bernhoft, told reporters that Kuglin was indicted seven months ago and had refused to plead the case out for a lesser sentence. During her testimony Kuglin testified that since 1995, she had sent numerous letters to the IRS requesting that they inform her of what law required...

Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not. I watched as many Sunday news programs as I could possibly stand, and I didn’t hear a single mention of the IRS’ debacle in Memphis. If you ever had doubts about the mainstream media being controlled by the federal...

The "tax honesty" organization spearheading legal action against the federal government for its failure to answer a "petition for redress of grievances" regarding the income tax is moving into the second phase of its class-action suit. We the People says its attorney, Mark Lane, has developed his "plan of attack" for filing the next round of court documents in the suit. The legal action takes the government to task for the failure of either the executive or legislative branch to address the 537 questions about the validity of the federal income tax posed by WTP's petition. (Note: Adobe Acrobat required...

FORT WORTH - Anti-tax protesters from across the country braved a chilly reception inside and outside the federal courthouse Monday when Bedford businessman Richard Simkanin went on trial for the second time on charges of violating U.S. tax laws. U.S. District Judge John McBryde closed the courtroom during jury selection. About 100 of Simkanin's supporters were ordered to leave the fourth floor of the courthouse while they waited for trial testimony to begin. Simkanin, the 59-year-old owner of a small Bedford plastics manufacturing company, is accused of failing to withhold and pay $175,000 in taxes on employee wages and of...

FORT WORTH - After deliberating for more than 13 hours over two days, a federal jury Wednesday convicted Bedford businessman and tax protester Richard Simkanin on 29 counts of violating U.S. income tax laws. The jury of six men and six women delivered its verdict shortly after 8 p.m. They remained deadlocked on two counts within the indictment, leading U.S. District Judge John McBryde to declare a mistrial on those charges. Simkanin stood silently with his hands behind his back, showing no emotion, as a court clerk read the 29 guilty verdicts. Some supporters in the courtroom dabbed their eyes;...

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...

"I won’t go to jail." Bob Schulz announces this in late January to a rapt crowd of 200 gathered in an auditorium in Crystal City, Virginia. It’s the first national conference of the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education, a nonprofit advocacy group Schulz founded and runs. He delivers his declaration not with reckless bravado but with a dignified, quiet, middle-management-lifer assurance, in keeping with his general mien. Schulz is a serious white male in a nice conservative dark suit, a former environmental engineer for both General Electric and the Environmental Protection Agency. He’s been married for 38 years...

The widely promoted claim that Americans are not required to pay income taxes on their wages is false, a federal judge ruled Friday in ordering one of its leading proponents to stop inciting tax evasion. The judge, Christopher C. Conner, ordered the proponent, Thurston Paul Bell of Hanover, Pa., to post the court's order at his Web site (www.nite.org). Mr. Bell was also ordered to remove all language promoting the claim, known as the 861 position after a section of the tax code, that only those working for foreign-owned companies owe taxes on their wages. Mr. Bell must turn over...

Posted on Fri, Jan. 09, 2004 Bedford anti-tax advocate is movement's new hero Dave Lieber - In My Opinion I spent part of this week in a bizarre world. U.S. District Judge John McBryde, the no-nonsense judge once accused by a fellow federal judge of "bizarre and bullying conduct," locked me along with dozens of other spectators in his courtroom. McBryde really did order his bailiffs to lock the door. And who was I locked in there with? An all-star team of federal income-tax haters, some of whom don't recognize the authority of the United States government, and showed this...

Tax protesters plan to attend Bedford man's retrial By Toni Heinzl Star-Telegram Staff Writer FORT WORTH - For tax protesters across the country, Bedford businessman Richard Simkanin has become a hero and martyr for taking a stance against federal income taxes and rejecting the authority of the federal courts. Simkanin has been jailed since June while awaiting trial on tax charges. He accepted a plea bargain that was later thrown out because of a technical error, saw his first trial end in a mistrial and will face a retrial Monday. The 59-year-old owner of a small plastics-manufacturing company is "an...

Freedom Drive 2002 Bob Schulz's Speech, DC, Nov. 14, 2002 "No Answers, NO Taxes" REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES BEFORE TAXES Especially When The Taxes Are Used To Compound The Grievances (No Answers, No Taxes) by Robert L. Schulz, Chairman, We The People Congress Presented at Freedom Drive 2002, The National Mall, Washington DC November 14, 2002 Acknowledgement: Bob Schulz wishes to acknowledge and thank Anthony Hargis for his fine research paper, "The Lost Right, Redress of Grievances." (undated). Bob's speech draws heavily on that research and the underlying documents. The founding fathers, in an act of the Continental Congress in 1774,...

A leader of the "tax honesty movement," whose hunger strike last year convinced federal officials to agree to answer in public tough questions about the income tax's legality – though the government later reneged on the offer – now says he will no longer file income tax returns and has pledged to tour the country to convince other taxpayers to do likewise. Bob Schulz, chairman of the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education, said in a June 17 letter sent to President Bush, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rossotti and congressional leaders that he believes "the federal income tax...