5-16-03
Operation
Stop Withholding Continues to Roll
Day 31:
Gene Chapman Enters “Death Zone”
Larken Rose Raided, First Amendment No Concern to IRS
Lear Files Habeas Corpus to Free Husband
The
nationwide meeting tour to organize America’s workers and companies to
enforce the People’s Right to Petition for Redress of Grievances rolled
through Oregon and through Washington this week.
Bob Schulz, Chairman of We The People Foundation continued his relentless
call for ordinary people and business owners to legally terminate their wage
withholding and to stop paying and filing in order force the government to
answer the
537
legal questions regarding the federal income tax, i.e., “No Answers, NO
Taxes.”
In
each meeting, Schulz reviews in substantial detail the Foundation’s well
documented, four year attempt to get official answers to the Petitions for
Redress – one of which directly challenges the legal jurisdiction of the IRS
and exposes the gross violations of constitutional rights that IRS
systemically commits in its daily operations and enforcement actions. The
other Petitions challenge the government’s abuses of its limited powers
regarding making war, creating money and its police authority. To date,
the US
government has reneged on the explicit agreements it has made to provide
official answers.
This
past 10 days, Schulz has spoken to hundreds of people in Reno, Nevada as
well as Medford, Bend, Corvallis and Portland, Oregon. On this past Monday
evening, Schulz spoke to a crowd of about 150 in Seattle, Washington and to
an even larger crowd in Spokane Tuesday evening.
At one
point during the “question and answer” segment in Portland, someone asked
how many in the audience had stopped withholding or filing. A sea of arms
immediately went up with people eagerly volunteering how many years they had
stopped filing – including one gentleman that had not filed in 22 years.
Another audience member at an earlier
Oregon
meeting read a letter from the local IRS office stating that IRS had
received so many challenges and letters concerning the tax laws that they
were having trouble answering the volume of letters and would try to respond
within 6 or 7 weeks.
It was
very clear from these anecdotes that IRS does indeed have a growing
problem. Not only are the masses continuing to learn more each day of the
details of the tax fraud, but people are in fact, terminating their
“voluntary compliance” with the tax system and directly challenging the
authority of the government.
Schulz
is
scheduled
to appear in Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado this weekend.
Click here
to see more pictures from Schulz’s travels and meetings from the past 10
days including traveling through snow in both the high Sierras and in
Oregon’s Cascade mountain range.
Day 31:
Gene Chapman Enters “Death Zone”
Austin
Texas -- Gene Chapman is now on the 31st day of his death fast. All he
wants is the government to answer a single legal question: “What law makes
me liable to pay the income tax?” They have not yet provided him an
answer. His question is among the 537 questions from the WTP sponsored
Petitions for Redress of Grievances that the US government will not answer.
DOJ and IRS reneged on their July, 2001 agreement to answer those
questions.
Chapman stated this weekend that he has now entered the “death zone” that
ensues during a protracted hunger fast. He has already lost 50 pounds
during the past four weeks. His heart is beginning to hurt and pound
disturbingly and he is finding his energy significantly depleted requiring
significant periods of rest to recover.
Chapman started his fast on April 15 and is determined to become, if
necessary, the nation’s first acknowledged martyr in the effort to expose
the tax fraud for what it is.
Yesterday, the IRS responded to an e-mail sent on behalf of Chapman to the
IRS internet “help line.” The carefully worded deceptions in the responses
are worth noting for the record given that a man is about to die to get his
single question about US tax law answered.
The most glaring problem with the IRS response is that, once again, IRS
fails to cite any specific law that actually makes Gene Chapman, or anyone,
liable to pay the tax. The e-mail response from IRS is reproduced
below in italics with WTP comments noted.
Your Question Was:
Where is MY tax liability in the law?
Gene Chapman http://genechapman.blogspot.com
The Answer To Your Question Is:
Thank you for your e-mail inquiry.
The United States income tax system is one of voluntary compliance in that
the government relies primarily upon the disclosure by the taxpayer of the
relevant facts (Helvering v Mitchell 303 us 391, 399)
Comment: We agree
wholeheartedly -- it is voluntary.
The obligation to pay the
correct amount of tax, however, is mandatory as enacted by congress in the
various public laws comprising the Internal Revenue Code. The courts have
uniformly upheld this concept. For example, in Schiff v
United States, 919 f.2nd 830, 834, the Second Circuit Court of
Appeals stated that the payment of income taxes
is not optional and the average citizen knows that the payment of income
taxes is legally required.
Comment: IF
you have a legal obligation to pay, we agree – pay the tax. The question is
WHO is liable and WHERE is the liability imposed in the law? The Schiff
quote is clearly propaganda in that it implies that because the average
citizen “knows” or believes payment is required, that this somehow creates a
legal duty for Chapman and everyone else. Our nation is a nation of
law -- not perceptions about the law.
The
Internal Revenue Code, as enacted by Congress, authorizes the Commissioner
of Internal Revenue to promulgate regulations to
implement and clarify congressional intent when appropriate and/or
necessary. The underlying authority, however, is the Internal
Revenue Code, and the code remains in effect whether or not specific
regulations have been issued.
Comment:
Aside from the fact that it is unquestioned in US Jurisprudence that laws
require implementing regulations, the law itself, i.e., the USC Title 26,
the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) does not anywhere specifically impose a
liability for income tax. If it is there, the IRS seems unable to cite
it and end this matter for all time. Also, as was documented in the
Truth-in-Taxation Hearing, the “congressional intent” for the 16th
Amendment was clearly not the wages and salaries of ordinary Americans.
Taxpayers have taken a
number of positions to the effect that the income tax laws do not apply
because wages are not income, the 16th amendment was not ratified, they were
citizens of a sovereign state and not a citizen of the United States, the
Internal Revenue Code does not require the payment of taxes by an
individual, and several other equally unsupportable legal positions. The
courts have uniformly held these types of arguments to be frivolous and not
supported by law, regulation, or judicial opinion.
Comment:
Let's dissect some of this propaganda:
“... wages are not income,...” – The Supreme
Court has on numerous occasions, defined income for purposes of the tax laws
as being a “gain or profit resulting from corporate activity”.
Additionally, even if we concede this important legal tidbit for a moment,
it is acknowledged that wages are listed in the tax code as being “items” of
income. Unfortunately for the IRS, to become taxable as “gross income”,
wages must come from taxable “sources”. There is a list of taxable
sources the IRS has jurisdiction over in Section 861. Please see
www.taxableincome.net for a complete discussion of this issue.
“... the 16 Amendment was not
ratified,...” – The amendment was properly ratified only if you
completely ignore: the rules of Jurisprudence regarding the passage of
legislation, the large number of states that could not re-type a simple
sentence in their amendment legislation (which voids their amendment vote),
the 22 states that significantly violated provisions of their state’s
constitutions while voting for the Amendment (thereby voiding their vote on
the 16th) and by completely ignoring the vote by the Commonwealth
of Kentucky, that voted 22-9 against the amendment, but had it recorded by
the US Secretary of State as 22-9 in FAVOR of the amendment.
In 1984, tax law researcher Bill Benson traveled through the
48 states in existence in 1913 and got 17,000 certified, notarized copies of
all amendment related documents from the state archives documenting the
fraud of the ratification. This information was presented to the federal
judiciary in 1986. The 9th Circuit refused to rule on the issue
of fraud instead referring the People to the Congress to get answers to a
“political” question.
Since 1986, no federal court has ruled on validity of the 16th
Amendment. See Bill Benson’s site
www.thelawthatneverwas.com for a more complete discussion.
“… the Internal Revenue Code does not
require the payment of taxes by an individual…” – The IRC covers many
types of taxes. We agree that some individuals are required to pay some of
these taxes. However, with regard to INCOME taxes, the law does not make
clear what ‘individuals’ are referred to in the income tax section (Subtitle
A), nor is it clear what specific law makes the average American liable.
This is what Chapman is asking for!
“…The courts have uniformly held these
types of arguments to be frivolous and not supported by law, regulation, or
judicial opinion” – First, if THESE arguments are frivolous, why
don’t they say so? The IRS merely states arguments “of this type” have been
held frivolous. The truth is the courts have REFUSED to address many of
these important legal issues and they remain unanswered to this day.
The purpose of this Web
site is to help taxpayers meet their obligation to voluntarily prepare and
file a correct tax return. To that end, we will make every effort to
respond to valid tax law questions. However, we will not respond to any
inquiry relying on a frivolous position or an argument not supported by law
beyond this notification.
Comment:
“…obligation to [volunteer]…” If it wasn’t so sad, it could almost be
funny. In reality, the IRS never directly answers legal questions that
expose the fraud – these questions are contentiously asserted as
“frivolous.”
Within
days, Gene Chapman may die.
WTP
hopes that everyone reading this column will pick up the phone and call
either the IRS or Gene Chapman’s congressional representatives to voice your
opinion about a government that wallows in deception and inaction as a man
nears death waiting for an answer to a single question.
Chapman’s House Representative is Rep. Michael Burgess, (202) 225-7772.
Texas Senator Kay Hutchinson can be reached at 512-916-5834.
Click here
to see the latest details of Chapman’s fast including pictures and to listen
to short audio files Gene is creating as his fast continues.
Larken Rose Raided, IRS Continues Assault on First Amendment
On May
6th, tax law researcher Larken Rose, sat for eight hours on his
living room couch as a dozen armed federal agents searched through and
seized many of his private papers and computers.
Rose,
an outspoken proponent of the “861 Sources” argument, has for the past two
years, openly challenged the DOJ and IRS to charge him with failure to file
tax returns or pay the income tax. Rose sells no tax or legal services and
distributes all of his published research material available for free on his
website,
www.taxableincome.net. The only item Rose sells are copies
of his modestly priced video tape, Theft By Deception.
The tape details in both visual and narrative form, a compelling legal
argument documenting that the law itself, at Section 861, shows that the
wages and salaries of ordinary Americans are not taxable, because the wages
and salaries do NOT come from sources that are taxable under US law.
A list of the sources that are taxable is listed in Section 861. Rose’s
video also documents several key revisions in the tax code beginning in 1954
that clearly appear to be designed to conceal the legal fact that the
ordinary income of Americans is not taxable because it is exempt by the
Constitution.
Rose
has reduced his complex legal argument to several key legal questions citing
the Internal Revenue Code at Section 861. The government refuses to
respond to Rose’s questions and insists the “861 sources argument” is
legally “frivolous.”
Rose’s
search warrant contained a sworn affidavit claiming several violations of
federal law including Willful Failure to File (26 USC § 7203), Willful
Failure to Pay a Tax (26 USC § 7201), Filing of False Tax Claims (26 USC §
7206(1) and 18 USC § 287). In addition, Rose may also be charged with using
violence or the threat of bodily harm to try to stop federal employees from
administering the tax laws (26 USC § 7212(a)) and conspiracy to defraud the
United States (18 USC § 371).
According to a discussion Rose had with an IRS agent, the federales
apparently consider it a federal crime for Rose to have sent free videos to
IRS agents, and then to make public whom he had sent them to.
Irwin
Schiff’s Free Speech Rights are also currently under legal attack in
Nevada. Schiff is currently under a temporary restraining order prohibiting
him from selling or distributing his book, “The Federal Mafia,” or
from speaking in public about the income tax laws. Following intervention
by the ACLU and several national library associations, the federal judge in
his case extended the timeline for filing additional briefs regarding the
important constitutional issues in the case.
Click here to get more
information on Schiff’s situation and to see court documents and listen to
recordings of the ongoing hearings.
It is
apparently, (according to the IRS anyway), now a crime to talk about the law
or to publish an analysis of it. The May 6th raid on Rose was
indeed another dark day for the First Amendment. Whether the nation will
stand for these frontal attacks on the Right to Free Speech is a question
that will be answered soon.
A
nation that can, with impunity, characterize the free speech of its People
as a crime will not, and cannot, long survive. The rights to openly
criticize government and discuss matters of governance are crucial to the
functioning of our constitutional republic. Our Founding Fathers would,
indeed, be horrified that the Rights they risked and gave their very lives
for could be lost in so short a time.
Lear Files Habeas Corpus to Free Husband
With
the assistance of an attorney provided by We The People Foundation, Rose
Lear recently filed a Habeas Corpus motion on behalf of her husband Bill
Lear who is now serving a one year sentence for his conviction on two counts
of Willful Failure to File a 1040 tax return. The motion requests the court
to vacate (void) the judgment based on lack of due process and jurisdiction.
The
central legal issue raised in the Habeas motion focuses on the government’s
failure to cite on the charging indictment any specific tax that Bill Lear
failed to pay and failure to cite any statute that placed the legal
obligation upon Lear.
The
due process issues raised are troubling and go to the foundation of the
legal system and our constitutionally protected rights regarding fair trials
and prosecutions. In essence, Bill Lear has been convicted and is in prison
even though the government has failed to assert in its criminal indictment
ANY specific legal duty Lear failed to honor.
Click here
to read the “points and authorities” supporting Lear’s Habeas Corpus motion.
Click here
to contact your Congressman and your local media.
Click Here
to apply for the Legal Defense Association for no fee.
Click Here
to Access the Operation Stop Withholding meeting schedule.
DAY 31:
Click
Here for updated information on Gene Chapman’s death fast in
Austin, Texas to get the IRS to answer a single question: “What law makes
me liable to pay the income tax?”
Click
here for INSTRUCTIONS on how to apply for
membership in the WTP Legal Defense Association for NO cost or fee.
Click
here to read the WTP-LDA Standard Agreement (.htm
format)
Click
here to see Schulz's nationwide meeting
schedule for Operation Stop Withholding.
Click
Here
New !
Monthly or Semi-Monthly e-Donations to WTP
(Secure/Encrypted
-- now
also via AMEX, Discover & "e-Check")
Click
Here
to See the Lear/WTP March 20th DC National Press Club Press
Conference video
Click
Here for FREE legal forms and instructions to
LEGALLY Stop ALL wage withholding for employers, employees, and
independent contractors.
Click Here to obtain the record of the
historic Truth-in-Taxation hearing. 14 hours of video testimony under oath
by attorneys, former IRS agents, etc. Hundreds of legal
exhibits and a full transcript conclusively document the income tax fraud.
Fully interactive multi-media on four CD-ROMs or VHS.
|