“I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations and I have not provided false information to this or any other committee.” —Lois Lerner, past director of the Internal Revenue Service’s Exempt Organizations Unit
That’s right! Lois Lerner didn’t do anything wrong, or broke any laws, or provided false information to any committee. No, she pleaded the Fifth instead. She, a practiced attorney, decided on her own to target conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status with volumes of intrusive, prying, intimidating requests for information that were purely designed to stop granting tax exempt status to conservative groups just prior to the 2012 presidential election. This is a well-known lawyerly trick, bury the opposition in tons of paper work, interrogatories and depositions to either run them out of money, discourage them from going forward, or stop them altogether. If that doesn’t work, then harass the hell out of conservative groups by calling in other federal agencies to inspect them, fine them, audit them, or put them in jail. The IRS did that very thing to many of the conservative groups that were or are seeking tax-exempt status.
Now if you believe that Lois Lerner did this on her own and was not directed to do what she did from well up the executive ladder and perhaps all the way to the President, then you believe in fairy tales, Alice-in-wonder land and leprechauns.
Of all of the federal agencies, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the most vicious, arrogant, abusive and corrupt and this is on top of their bloated bureaucracy, gross incompetence and antiquated computer systems. It is a criminal, racketeering enterprise by any definition. The IRS has virtually unlimited power to harass, intimidate, abuse, or incarcerate anyone it pleases and is subject to little if any legislative oversight, as evidenced by the fact that the Department of Justice refused to indict Lois Lerner and other officers of the IRS in the recent IRS scandal, in spite of overwhelming evidence of criminal activity and cover up. And the IRS inspector general, one J. Russell George, is a joke. He should be in jail, along with the IRS Commissioner Joseph Koskinen and its Chief Counsel, William Wilkens.
And if you are thinking that a new president or Congress is going to abolish the IRS, forget it. Congress will never abolish the IRS, as we wrote in a previous article entitled, “Why Congress Will Never Repeal the IRS.” Congress loves the IRS because it very effectively controls you and your behavior ….. on purpose. Americans are in an oxen’s yoke. They just don’t know it.
Sadly, government gets a free pass almost every time. In today’s world, government always protects government. That’s why the DOJ never went after the IRS. It will come as no surprise to this author if Hillary Clinton gets a free pass while a decorated general, with a long, celebrated career, is taken down for far less of a violation than what Hillary Clinton has committed. Hillary is as corrupt as the IRS.
As we stated, the IRS is arrogant, abusive and corrupt. Here are just three documented examples of IRS criminal abuse of taxpayers.
“In June, 1988 Kay Council of High Point, NC came home one night to find a note from her husband, Alex: ‘My dearest Kay – I have taken my life in order to provide capital for you. The IRS and its liens, which have been taken against our property illegally by a runaway agency of our government, have dried up all sources of credit for us. So I have made the only decision I can. It’s purely a business decision… You will find my body on the lot on the north side of the house.’ At the end of a nine-year battle over a disallowed tax shelter, the IRS claimed that the Councils owed $300,000 in taxes, interest, and penalties. When their financial resources were exhausted, Mr. Council committed suicide to provide Mrs. Council with $250,000 insurance money to continue the battle. Ironically, Mrs. Council eventually won a court ruling that she and her husband owed the IRS nothing – the IRS deficiency notice had been sent four months after the statute of limitations had expired. Mrs. Council, 48, said, ‘I was cheated of growing old with the man I love.'” —Excerpt from an article by Randy Fitzgerald, staff writer at Readers Digest, republished in the March 1991 Issue of Reason Magazine. Full story was republished by Devvy Kidd in 2003.
“On March 4, 1976, Clyde H. Allisan and Ralph W. Foster, two IRS agents, paid Smiley a “friendly visit” in the truck-camper he used as a business office in Salem, Virginia. Ten minutes later Robert Smiley was dead from a bullet wound in the head. The IRS men had departed. Behind Smiley’s corpse there was a bullet mark in the wall – but the bullet was never found. At the other end of the camper a gun with no fingerprints was found. $2,000, which Smiley had in his pockets, was gone. Local police reported the death as a suicide. No autopsy was performed. The IRS agents were neither interviewed nor interrogated. No hearing was held. The only IRS official permitted to discuss the matter said that he knew nothing about the incident. Smiley’s close friends declared that the suicide theory was contrary to the known facts and at variance with Smiley’s jovial and good-natured character. A week later five IRS agents seized all the vehicles comprising Smiley’s business inventory and sold them. The Treasury Department refused to answer any questions on the matter. They also refused that IRS agents Allisan and Foster, who were with Smiley when he died, be interviewed. Meanwhile, IRS agents continued to harass Smiley’s broken-hearted, destitute, ill widow to the point that she attempted suicide on October 23, 1976.” —Martin A. Larson from his book “Tax Revolt: The Battle for the Constitution”
In the parking lot was the VW with the Olivers, Stephen and Mona, surrounded by IRS agents and onlookers. The tow truck waited. An onlooker named Freeman was giving verbal abuse to the agents and pointing at them. Photographers and reporters were there, a story in the making. With billy clubs, the agents broke the glass on the driver and passenger side of the vehicle and dragged the Olivers out of the vehicle over the glass. Mrs. Oliver was screaming about her heart medication in the glove compartment. Through the struggle, pills were scattered with the glass. Freeman continued his barrage of screams, ‘Would you look at that? It’s the modern-day Gestapo.’ Photographers took it all in and it was reported in the national news.” —Donald W. MacPherson, tax attorney, from his book “Tax Fraud and Evasion: The War Stories”
These are three glaring cases. But they can’t hold a candle to the millions upon millions of lesser cases that terrorize American citizens every day and make them deathly afraid of the IRS. As we wrote in a previous article, it has been reported that the IRS harasses over 10,000,000 taxpayers each year for mistakes the IRS makes, forcing the taxpayer to spend many hours and lots of bucks trying to convince the IRS that they are wrong. We are in one of those situations right now. Some taxpayers, in disgust, just pay the taxes, penalties and interest rather than fight the IRS. We, on the other hand, are using our own tools to set them straight.
Now some authors will tell you that you don’t really owe income taxes under a strict interpretation of the tax code. They may be right, but many taxpayers have paid a huge price, or even sent to jail, by acting on this knowledge. For the purposes of this article, we are not going to buy into that argument. At this point, we are going to assume that each citizen that earns money from wages or other pursuits owes income taxes, right or wrong. But that doesn’t mean you are powerless to defend your self against the IRS.
It is not necessary to capitulate every time you receive a letter, notice, or demand from the IRS. There are actions you can take to put you back in the driver’s seat. The first thing you need to do is to request more time to consult with professionals who have knowledge in the issue raised by their letter, notice, or demand. You may or you may not consult with professionals, it is just a plausible reason for more time, time that you can put to good use.
Also, you need to tell them in your letter requesting more time that you consider their letter, notice, or demand to be an adversarial act by government and you must act accordingly “to defend all of your rights and interests in law or at equity.” This will put the IRS on notice that you intend to meet them head on and take nothing for granted.
The next thing you need to do within the time period of your request for more time is to challenge their assertions in their letter, notice, or demand. They could easily be wrong because they are wrong a good portion of the time.
Another defense is to question their legal authority and the legality of the law that they cite in their letter, notice, or demand. It is your absolute right to do so.
One other thing: Never, ever engage the IRS in any other form than in writing. Anything they say to you personally or over the telephone, they can and will deny. Anything you say verbally to them, they can and will use against you. The IRS has no honor, no conscience and virtually no continuity from one IRS office to the next. And always send all correspondence to an IRS agent or agency by Certified – Return Receipt Requested, U. S. Mail. That way you will have a record of them receiving your correspondence and you can use that record as a further defense, or in court, if it comes to that. Make sure you note on the Green Return Receipt Card the date your letter was mailed to the IRS. Many times the IRS will sign the Return Receipt but they won’t insert the date they receive your letter.
The date you send the letter then becomes important. Others suggest that any document you send to the IRS be recorded at the county recorder’s office, which requires a notary. It costs a little more time and money, but it is worth it if you have to defend yourself in court.
Whatever you do, don’t panic. Stop and think about your next move. Don’t act hastily, although it is wise to answer any notice from the IRS within three (3) business days. You are dealing with a vicious federal agency that has the absolute power to take everything you own and put you in jail, even if they are wrong. Research and study as many credible sources as you can. When you are sure of your facts, then act and act professionally to let the IRS know you know what you are doing. If you don’t feel you can handle the issue on your own, seek qualified professional help, if you can find help that won’t rob you blind. Stay out of court if you can. The courts are a stacked deck and they don’t always comply with the law, much less constitutional principles. Just ask Doreen Hendrickson.
Now you may not win every time with the IRS, but at least you can look in the mirror with respect and your head held high, knowing you fearlessly and unafraid, spit Goliath in the eye. And then again, by challenging them you just might get lucky and slow them down, hold them at bay, or stop them altogether. As they say, you can’t win the lottery if you don’t get in the game.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are not powerless against the IRS. Don’t get mad at them when they come calling. Get brave, get smart and then get even, “HERE” or “HERE.”
[NOTE: The forgoing article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the opinion of NewsWithViews.com, it’s employees, representatives, or other contributing writers.]
© 2016 Ron Ewart — All Rights Reserved
