MORE ON THE HISTORY OF THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT

     Vivian Kellems was one of the original leaders of the Freedom Movement.  She first got a lot of attention in 1948 when she refused to collect income taxes from her 100 employees.  The government seized $8,000 from her bank account even though the employees had paid their taxes personally.  Vivian defeated the IRS in a jury trial.  In 1952, Vivian published: Toil, Taxes, and Trouble which described her fight with the IRS.

     However, she did not become a hard-core tax fighter until 1970 when she refused to give the IRS documents.  On December 16, 1969, Judge Canella in the United States District Court ordered her to produce her records and she ignored her ruling. Vivian went to court and argued the Fifth Amendment, and the judge ordered both the government and Vivian to prepare briefs.  The IRS withdrew their enforcement suit and assessed Vivian with a bogus assessment.  Then Vivian refused to produce records or file returns.  She finally died in January 1975 after thirty years of fighting the IRS. The last seven years of her life, she did not file returns.  As you can see, Vivian was struggling with the IRS more than 40 years ago, we can take a lot of inspiration from her as we continue the battle today. 

     Bracken Lee was another great freedom fighter who took the IRS on very early in the history of the income tax.  He was a former governor of Utah and the mayor of Salt Lake. He served as a director of the National Committee to Repeal the Sixteenth Amendment and became a target for IRS retaliation.  He was audited every year from 1935 to 1968.  In 1952 he started withholding and putting a portion of his income tax in trust to challenge the validity of federal loans to nations who were enemies of the American people.  He lost in the courts and the IRS invoked a jeopardy assessment against him.  In 1920 he took large deductions as a result of his wife's illness and the IRS disallowed his deductions.  He challenged the IRS and won.  In 1972 he wrote a letter that included the following statement:

I agree with you concerning the tax burden and its ultimate destruction of this country...I did not run for re-election as Mayor of Salt Lake City because of the feeling that Washington is slowly but surely taking over the operation of the states through the so-called furnishing of tax-dollars from Washington. I retired as Mayor of Salt Lake City on January 3, 1972, and do not again intend to seek public office.

    As you can see, the battle against the IRS has been going on for a long time.  We are the freedom fighters of our generation, but we were not the first.  We must keep the fight going.  The IRS must go.

If you send me an email and you do not get an answer, call me.  I am very good about answering emails.  Spam filters are not perfect and I am losing some of your emails in my spam filters. 

If you send me an email and you do not get an answer, call me.  I am very good about answering emails.  Spam filters are not perfect and I am losing some of your emails in my spam filters. 

Please keep in touch and let me know how your case is going.  Call anytime.  My office hours are 6AM to 9PM seven days a week.  Leave a message if I don't answer and I will return your call as soon as possible. Don't be bashful. Remember that you are in charge of your case.  It is your responsibility to call me and tell me what is happening.  I cannot help you unless you call.  If the IRS has filed a tax lien, you may get many letters from firms that promise to resolve your issues for pennies on the dollar with an offer in compromise. The IRS rejects 85% of offers in compromise.  If you wish to do an offer in compromise, I will help you do a realistic offer.  Please don't fall for magical solutions to tax problems, they don't work.

The purpose of the IRS is to collect the proper amount of tax revenues at the least cost to the public, and in a manner that warrants the highest degree of public confidence in our integrity, efficiency and fairness.   To achieve that purpose, we will encourage and achieve the highest possible degree of voluntary compliance in accordance with the tax laws and regulations.-Internal Revenue Manual, Chapter 1100,  Section 1111.1

The IRS maintains a fraud alert page on its website.  The following statement appears on the site.  Americans have a known legal duty to "voluntarily file tax returns."  Since when is it a known legal duty to "volunteer?"  The double speak is outrageous.  I can't imagine that we are still allowing this double speak to continue.  Here is the quote:

            General Tax Fraud

            The effects of Criminal Investigation are directed at the portion of American taxpayers who willfully and intentionally violate their known legal duty of voluntarily filing income tax returns and paying the correct amount of income, employment, or excise taxes. These individuals pose a serious threat to tax administration and the American economy.

During the last year, the IRS increased its enforcement activities heavily in the area of criminal and civil harassment.  Individuals, who had not heard from the IRS in ten years or more, began receiving letters.  Many people felt a false sense of security because of the lack of IRS interest in their case.  The IRS actually quit enforcing to a large degree between 1996 and 2003.  I was amazed at the amount activity challenging the IRS with virtually no response from the agency for years.  However, the ball has now rolled in the other direction and we can expect much increased IRS harassment until the public gets sick of it.  The situation is analogous to a cook who puts a lid on the tea pot with no way for the steam to escape.  Sooner or later there will be an explosion.  As the IRS tightens its grip, the stability that was achieved because there were leaks in the system that allowed for some dissents to slip through, will be lost and more and more anger will be focused at the income tax.  The only reason the current system works, at all, is because American's don't hate it enough to change it. However, the system will be more and more hated in the future.  The country is wasting its wealth on senseless wars.  Its youth are ending up with educations that don't get jobs for them and they are tremendously in debt.  Furthermore, our health care system is an absolute disaster, after the middle class pays high taxes; it has to pay hefty health insurance premiums. And even then, the health insurance companies may refuse service.  The health insurance premiums are, in effect, another tax, but the tax is administered by a group of people who care about the profits of the stockholders and not about the health of their clients.  Chew on that one a moment.