The Shyster Spews

[LPC]

From the Associated Press:

Taking on tax protesters
By STEPHANIE HOO
asap (AP)

Their arguments are strewn all over the Internet — people who are against the federal income tax.

Whether they think it's unconstitutional or are against the Constitution itself, whether they are protesting the war or protesting everything, tax refusers of all stripes can find like-minded souls on the World Wide Web.

They constitute only a tiny minority of Americans, according to the IRS. But like with everything else, the Internet gives them a street-corner soapbox.

'They're definitely more visible,'' says Daniel Evans, a tax lawyer in Wyndmore, Pa. ''They find each other, they reinforce each other, they are able to exchange their misinformation more easily.''

As such, the government and individuals like Evans have devoted their own Web sites to debunking anti-tax myths. Below is a look at both sides of the struggle.

THE PRO-TAX LAWYER

Evans recalls first encountering anti-tax messages in newsgroups back in the proto-Internet 1990s and thought he could gently correct them. For example, a certain strain of tax refuser contends that the 16th Amendment, which authorizes income taxes, was never ratified. This argument is bogus, as lawyers like Evans and the IRS are quick to point out.

I thought I could just discuss issues and answer people's questions,'' Evans recalls. Instead, he riled an e-mob.

''They're, like: You lying shyster,'' he recalls. ''It was one excuse after the other. And I kept trying to explain it — looking at other cases they would cite and doing more research — and finally I got tired of repeating myself.''

He has since compiled a compendium of pro-tax arguments in an online document that comes to 227 pages if printed out. http://evans-legal.com/dan/tpfaq.html

''There are a lot of tax protesters that are really anarchists,'' he says. ''I think the answer there is, they can move to places in the world that don't have any government, like Somalia. I don't think they're going to like it.''

He adds: ''I'd rather live in a society that has rules and laws,'' and that means paying income tax.

THE IRS

Each year, an estimated $312 billion to $353 billion in taxes aren't paid on time, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Most of the shortfall is from people underreporting income — not because of people refusing to pay because of one principle or another, says IRS spokeswoman Nancy Mathis.

A ''very minimal'' number of Americans flat-out refuse to pay, she says, but adds there are no precise figures.

In 2001, the total tax gap was $345 billion, or a noncompliance rate of 16.3 percent, the agency says. Of that, the IRS recovered $55 billion through audits, penalties and other enforcement.

he IRS has its own Web page devoted to knocking down what it calls ''frivolous tax arguments,'' including contentions that taxes violate the Fifth, 13th or 16th amendments. It, too, is a long document, and the word ''frivolous'' appears more than 100 times. http://tinyurl.com/y4b6uw

THE PEACENIK

Randy Kehler says he has refused to pay federal income taxes since 1976 to protest U.S. military policy, first in Central America and now Iraq.

Unlike the ''anarchists'' that Evans describes, Kehler doesn't think the income tax is illegal. His nonpayment is to prevent his money from being spent on the military. Instead, he takes what he should be paying in federal taxes and donates it to war victims groups, homeless shelters, food banks and other causes — about $2,000 last year, he says.

''It's nonviolent resistance,'' he says, adding that he does pay state and local taxes.

The IRS says it makes no distinction between people who refuse to pay because of their moral beliefs and other ''frivolous'' arguments about the validity of the Constitution.

And in 1989, Kehler and his wife, Betsy Corner, were evicted from their home in Colrain, Mass., for nonpayment of more than $45,000 in taxes, interest and penalties. Kehler was also jailed for three months for contempt of court, and the government sold their home at auction.

Now, they rent.

''Short of locking us up ... there's nothing they can take,'' he says.

Their tax fight was the subject of a 1997 documentary called ''An Act of Conscience,'' narrated by the actor Martin Sheen. http://www.turningtide.com/aoc.htm

THE ANTI-TAX LAWYER

Kehler's modest fame brought him letters of support from what he calls ''the more right-wing anti-government tax refuser groups,'' and he makes clear that he doesn't agree with them. ''We are not insisting that the federal income tax is unconstitutional.''

But in the view of tax protester Jeffrey Dickstein, the entire concept of an income tax is wrong.

''There is no question in my mind that the 16th Amendment was not ratified,'' says Dickstein, a lawyer in Milwaukee, Wis., who has sought to fight tax policy in the courts.

He compares tax refusers to historic rebels ''just like Galileo, who happened to tell people the truth about the relationship between the sun and the earth.'' He says the courts are corrupt and blind to the truth. His client Bill Benson, whom he forbade from talking to asap, offers their legal argument online. http://www.thelawthatneverwas.com

Yet, even as he represents tax refusers, Dickstein says he does pay his own taxes. ''To fail to do so is to slit your throat in today's political environment,'' he says. ''The courts are closed, like in Galileo's time.''

Stephanie Hoo is asap's business writer.