It's NOT Over When The Tax Lady Sings On April 15 By Ralph R. Reiland http://www.independent.org/tii/news/reiland_taxes.html 3-8-00

It ain't over on April 15! If you stop, for example, for a $10 pizza on Thursday night to celebrate being done with the IRS for another year, the taxman will be right there to grab a slice or two. On top of paying the sales tax, you'll also be picking up a major chunk of what the government charges the pizza shop owner for local property taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, federal payroll taxes, federal and state and local income taxes, and worker's compensation taxes. Altogether, according to a study by the Americans for Tax Reform, that comes to $3.80 on a $10 pizza for the omnipresent taxman. If you pick up a Bud six-pack to go with the pizza, there's another 43 cents of each beer dollar that goes straight to the taxman for excise taxes, income taxes, property taxes, etc. For something stronger, say Jack Daniels, the taxman's share is $7.20, on average, out of every $10. Go lighter and just drink a Pepsi and it's 35 percent of what you pay that goes for taxes at all levels. Add some Marlboros and it's 75 percent of the retail price that's funneled directly into the state's coffers. Get home and hit the light switch and another $26 out of every $100 on the electric bill goes for government rather than electricity.

If you're flying the next day, the taxman is up early and waiting at the airport, pocketing $40 on every $100 airline ticket. And he's there in the hotel lobby when you land, snatching $43 on every $100 of the hotel bill. Go out to dinner and it's another $28 of every $100 of the tab that ends up with the government rather than with the restaurant, the farmers, truckers and everyone else who worked together to produce the meal.

At each and every stop, in items large and small, the greedy hand of government has its sticky fingers in every pocket. With bread, a recent study by Price Waterhouse shows that 30 different taxes imposed on the production and sale of a loaf of bread account for 27 percent of the average retail price. Buy some new tires and it's $36 on every $100 that goes to the taxman. On the price of a new car, an Americans for Tax Reform study shows that total taxes reach 45 percent of the showroom sticker price. Add some gas and 54 percent of what you pay for a fill-up goes for 43 different federal, state and local taxes rather than to the oil producer and retailer.

At the start of this nation's unique experiment with individual sovereignty and limited government, "Taxation without representation is tyranny" was the watchword of the American Revolution. For our Founding Fathers, a level of taxation of only a few cents on a dollar, siphoned off to a faraway and arrogant bureaucracy, was enough to ignite a revolution, enough to grab the trusty musket off the wall. Today, in contrast, if we dare to startle the more panicky among us by buying a good rabbit gun, the government's there at the cash register to check our papers and seize $46 on every $100.

All of this, of course, this immense pile of hidden taxation, is stacked on top of our local property taxes and our local, state and federal income taxes. The way out? Not so easy: act up and phone an IRS bureaucrat in D.C. about out-of-control government and the taxman grabs another $1 on every $2 call; get drunk and it's another $43 or $72 of every $100 that gets shipped off to the state, depending on whether it's Coors or Wild Turkey.

For the average family, all these taxes now eat up 38 percent of gross income, a higher rate of taxation than ever before in the peacetime history of the United States. By comparison, the typical two-income family in the mid-1950s paid 28 percent of their income for taxes. We're now at the absurd point where the typical family works until noon of every working day to satisfy the taxman, paying more in taxes than they spend for food, clothing and housing combined. Today, with 480 different tax forms, 17,000 pages of laws and regulations and a federal tax code that's over 7 million words (compared to 773,000 words in the Holy Bible, both Testaments), nearly 60 percent of Americans are paying a professional to help them negotiate the tax maze. Each year, the IRS sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions, enough paper to stretch 28 times around the earth. To conform with this federal Rube Goldberg tax code, Americans are spending 5.4 billion hours and $200 billion a year just in compliance costs, not counting the taxes paid, i.e., more time and money than it takes to produce every car, truck and van each year in the United States.

When the federal income tax was launched back in 1913, the tax was levied on only the super-wealthy, the richest one-half of 1 percent of the population, with a top tax rate of only 7 percent. Today, of course, the fears of the early opponents of the tax have been more than fully realized. By the end of Herbert Hoover's term, the top rate had jumped to 60 percent. By the time Franklin D. Roosevelt was done, the top rate was over 90 percent and the tax had been dramatically expanded to seize the incomes of the middle class for the first time. In 1913, the average family had to work until January 30 before earning enough to satisfy the taxman at all levels. This year, the average American family will work all the way through until May 12 in order to earn enough to pay their federal, state and local tax bills.

"Compare this to the plight of medieval serfs," says economist Daniel J. Mitchell. "They only had to give the lord of the manor a third of their output and they were considered slaves. So what does that make us?" Associate Fellow Ralph R. Reiland is a professor of economics at Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh. His e-mail is: rreiland@aol.com

-- Muzzie Braun (muzziebraun@aol.com), January 11, 2001

Answers

$300,000 INCOME TAX REWARD OFFER

Freedom Law School will offer $100,000 to the first person, who can demonstrate any of the below propositions. The winner can collect up to $300,000 if he/she can demonstrate all of the 3 propositions listed below:

1.Show what statute written by the Congress of the United States requires me to file an Income Tax Confession (Return) and pay an Income Tax. 2.How can I file an Income Tax Confession (Return) without waiving my 5th Amendment protected right to not give any information to the government that may be used to prosecute me? 3.Prove that the 16th Amendment of the United States Constitution, the Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which, according to the IRS and modern American courts permitted the Income Tax to exist, was lawfully added to the U.S Constitution.

Freedom Law School declares that:

There is no statute that makes any American Citizen, who works for a living in the United States of America, liable or responsible to pay the income tax. Individuals only become liable to pay the income tax when they voluntarily file a tax return, and the I.R.S. follows its assessment procedures as outlined in the Internal Revenue Code.

If there were a statute which clearly and unequivocally required the filing of tax returns, such a statute would be unconstitutional under the present income tax system to the extent that it would require individuals to give the government information which could be used against them to prosecute them criminally. Although the IRS and the modern American Courts claim that the 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution permitted the Income Tax to be imposed on the compensation for labor of the average working man, this Amendment was not properly added to the U.S. Constitution.

The IRS, under our U.S. Constitution, cannot legally require information on 1040 returns from individuals--this is the reason why the IRS continually refers to the income tax as "voluntary."

See the end of this message for the procedure to claim your reward.

To help you start your investigation of these Income Tax issues

and taking a shot at our reward offer, we offer the following sources:

Go to www.freedomabovefortune.com and download for FREE the first chapter of the Report, INVESTIGATING THE FEDERAL INCOME TAX by Joseph R. Banister. This Report gives a detailed analysis of the above claims of Freedom Law School. Mr. Banister became a student of Freedom Law School in 1998 while continuing to work for the IRS as Special Agent Criminal Investigator for the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS. Mr. Banister's primary duty was to investigate and recommend prosecution of individuals who had violated the criminal tax laws of the United States. While working for the IRS, Mr. Banister wrote this report and presented it to the top management of the IRS in February of 1999 for a point-by-point refutal by the IRS. The IRS, with its large army of tax accountants and lawyers at its disposal, utterly refused to dispute any of the conclusions of Mr. Banister's Report. Mr. Banister has since quit the IRS in protest and had Freedom Law School publish and distribute his Report to the hardworking American Worker to inform them of this unlawful robbery of them. You may obtain a copy of this Report from Freedom Law School for $22. See ordering information below.

Visit our Book Store to purchase a copy of the book entitled WHY NO ONE IS REQUIRED TO FILE TAX RETURNS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT, by Bill Conklin. Mr. Conklin successfully had the 10th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals admit that the filing of an Income Tax Confession (Return) is voluntary. Mr. Banister started his investigation of the Income Tax's legal basis by first reading this book. Mr. Conklin offers a $50,000 Income Tax reward for anyone who can demonstrate the first 2 reward offers of Freedom Law School. If you can prove us wrong, here is another $50,000 to add to your cash stash. Caution: 3 people have previously attempted to collect this reward from Mr. Conklin. One of them lost to Mr. Conklin in court; the other losers were lawyers. One of the lawyers was Melvin Belli, the famous "palimony" attorney. You may obtain a copy of Mr. Conklin's book for $21 from Freedom Law School. See ordering information below.

You can obtain a copy of THE LAW THAT NEVER WAS, by Bill Benson who was a Criminal Investigator with the Criminal Investigation Division of the Department of Revenue of the State of Illinois. This book documents how not even a single state properly ratified the 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for addition to the U.S. Constitution.

You may obtain a copy of Mr. Benson's book from Freedom Law School for $33. See ordering information below. You may obtain a copy of the videotape of the IRS Showdown in July 2, 1999, which was broadcast by C-Span 2, in which Mr. Benson, Conklin and Banister explained their findings about the Income Tax. The IRS, the President of the United States and heads of Congress were invited to refute the findings of these gentlemen, but they did not bother to show up. This 3.5 hour videotape is available for $30 from Freedom Law School.

Send CASH (NO CHECKS) to: Freedom Law School 1062-C Walnut St. Tustin, California 92780 (714) 838-2896

To apply for the rewards, mail your documentation to Freedom Law School at the address above. We encourage you to have your accountant, CPA, lawyer or IRS agent apply for the reward. Good luck!

-- Betty Boop (bettyboop@aol.com), January 11, 2001.