REASON Profile

Karl Bray

Among the more controversial issues of libertarian strategy is that of tax resistance—i.e., actively challenging and defying the coercive taxation powers of the State—and few libertarians are more involved in the tax movement than is Karl Bray, who currently has three lawsuits going against the IRS as well as presently having a suit docketed in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the income tax. In addition Bray authored and published (in 1972) a booklet entitled Taxation and Tyranny; is a co-editor of Rip-off Resistance, a monthly journal devoted to the techniques of tax avoidance; and is presently working on a full-length book on tax resistance.

Thirty-one year old Bray was born in Provo, Utah, studied at Brigham Young University, Weber State College, and Blackstone Law School. He and his wife, Donna Noble, will be moving to California in early 1975 so both can enter law school and work towards their J.D. degrees. Mr. Bray worked his way through college as an electronics technician and television repairman; after college he worked as a broadcast journalist and had his own radio talk show for a year in Salt Lake City.

Mr. Bray's other interests include flying, horses, and farming—he is currently completing the requirements for his pilot's license, and he and his wife raise quarter horses on their farm. His favorite authors are Ayn Rand (reading Atlas Shrugged in 1964 provided his introduction to libertarianism) and Isaac Asimov; he enjoys reading science journals and science fiction.

Although he is an activist—he is running for Congress on the Utah Libertarian  Party ticket and is a member of the national Libertarian Party executive committee, as well as being a tax rebel—he sees that as basically a means to maintain his sense of life and assist more important processes. "A libertarian society will only be achieved through education and rational persuasion. There is no substitute for knowledge and we must take a long range point of view."