I spent a lot of my earlier life involved in the tax honesty movement doing research and being involved in meetings, court cases, IRS hearings, and that kind of thing.
A grass roots movement, which happened from about 1970 to 2010 more or less, gave us some interesting results.
But for the last 10 years I have been out of it, due to health reasons. I recently found myself drawn back into it, and had some catching up to do. And I found out that this movement, is pretty much dead now.
What started with a few tax protesters writing books and sharing knowledge that they believed to be true, (and in most cases was, but was not applied properly), ended up in some major events that should (and some do) still effect us today.
President Ronald Reagan said that this country was 20 years over due for a major tax revolt, and he was right then, and we are still over due. And he served as President from 1980 to 1988.
Highlights of this movement include the week long IRS hearings held by Senator Roth, on Cspan in 1998. This series of hearings exposed a LOT of problems within the USTD and its subdivision the IRS. Among them, the testimony of the 1st and only IRS historian Shelly Waxman's scathing testimony of the shear audacity attitude of the IRS workers and management. The conclusion of this series of hearings was best described by one IRS workers own words. " We do what we want, to whom we want, because we can". And even today this same mentality prevails.
Shortly after that Charles Yantzee wrote a book, "Confessions of a Tax Collector" that pretty much echoed the testimony given during those hearings.
IRS workers and former workers became celebrities in the movement. Sherri Jackson, an award winning, former Revenue agent joined the tax honesty movement AFTER she left service in the IRS to care for her elderly mother. She discovered the truth and joined the movement.
Joe Bannister an Enforcement agent joined the movement while still on the job! He did so because he filed an inquiry with his upper management, who responded in a way that made him pause to think.. They told him to shut up and do is job or leave the service. Joe was eventually forced to leave the IRS and was attacked via litigation for standing up for what he believed to be the truth.
Sherry Jackson also later was punished just like Bannister, with litigation and I believe ended up doing some jail time.
Such actions were standard procedure for the IRS. They punish those who leave or turn their backs on the IRS or who expose the IRS's wrong doings.
Mean while many American Citizens were busy with their own fights against the IRS. Many went to court, some ended in Jail, and a few ended up at the Supreme Court of the US.
Tax Guru's like Irwin Schiff, John Kotimer, Barry Konikov, Larkin Rose, were some of the names mentioned at the time. Arron Russo's movie "America, freedom to Facisim" was made to sound the alarm about what was going on. Bob Shultz of the "we the people Congress" group, was part of Arron's support team, and it was his case that went to the Supreme court.
If I remember correctly, Bob had 2 cases. 1 was about the peoples right to petition the US government for grievances. This case got thrown out, i believe because it is the states that have that right, not people. His case about 5th amendment rights when dealing with the USTD and its subdivision the IRS did go to the USSC and he won that case, if I remember correctly. His website is still on line but is no longer active, the last entries are from 2012.
The latest guru to stick his head up is one radio show host by the name of Dave Chumpian, who wrote a book and calls taxation, theft. I disagree. Taxation may be a necessary evil, but the way the USTD administers it is the theft, not the law itself.
Overall the movement as a whole has been a partial success. Mainly because the lack of the people involved to come together to go after common issues, and to seek litigation on those issues. Bob Shultz showed us what COULD be achieved if we all did that.
Ive decided to post more on this, so it will be a multi post comment. I want to go into more detail about what happened and why. I think its important for people who want to know who were not part of it, to know what happened.
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