The Federal Mafia Strikes Back

Although it only appeared on Reason Online yesterday, just in time for today's income tax celebrations, my article on the tax honesty movement was written for the May issue of the print version of Reason, which has been in subscribers hands (and if you aren't one, what are you waiting for?) for a couple of weeks and went to press over a month ago. Thus, this update on the latest in "you don't have to pay income tax" godfather Irwin Schiff's current legal contretemps: his newest legal strategy complete with links to his court filings, and this Las Vegas Sun account from yesterday of his most recent day in court.

Comments

[MALAK]

Speaking as a subscriber from the Great White North, I just got mine today. Any way to improve that short of immigrating?

[Hank]

Malak:

'Fraid its Canada's swell postal service that is at fault. Back when i was in a business that shipped things up North, it'd take 3 or 4 days for the package to reach the border, then another 2 or 3 weeks to get to its recipient. Maybe its just Canadian customs are a bit over zealous?

[notJoe]

Story on audits on Jim Lehrer last night. A working poor filer has a 1 in 47 chance of being audited. A millionaire filer has a 1 in 400 chance of being audited.

How is that not class war?

Lemme take a stab: do ya suppose it's because your precious big government has so fucked up the tax code that, absent professional help, everyone filing a return's gonna get it wrong. Do ya suppose that, because he has professional help, the rich person stands a better chance of getting the return right, and the poor person, who has to do the thing himself, is gonna fuck it up? Why *not* audit the ones that have the best chance of being wrong?

You're starting to get on my tits Joe.

[MALAK]

Thanks Hank, but I think the unionized guys in Customs might have to get off their collectivized a---- in order to get zealous about anything, save quitting time.

[ewilliam]

Why is this friggin' blog turning into a shameless self-promotion medium for Reason editors? Bloody hell, it seems like, these days, every third or fourth posting has some sort of built-in advertisement for the print edition, or a shaming/scolding for non-subsribers. Ok, we get it, if you're not a subscriber, then you fuckin suck. Let's move on.

[ewilliam]

Why is this friggin' blog turning into a shameless self-promotion medium for Reason editors? Bloody hell, it seems like, these days, every third or fourth posting has some sort of built-in advertisement for the print edition, or a shaming/scolding for non-subsribers. Ok, we get it, if you're not a subscriber, then you fuckin suck. Let's move on.

[joe]

Story on audits on Jim Lehrer last night. A working poor filer has a 1 in 47 chance of being audited. A millionaire filer has a 1 in 400 chance of being audited.

Even if every dime in EITCs was fraudulent, it would account for $6 billion of the $250-400 billion in tax fraud each year.

Concurrently with the Gingrich Congress's efforts reduce IRS investigations of the wealthy, they send the IRS marching orders and money to audit low income taxpayers.

How is that not class war?

[M1EK]

TAX HONESTY:

My marginal rate: 25%

If I was a libertarialoon, I'd be complaining about paying 1/4 of my income in FIT

My actual rate (thanks, TurboTax): 12%

If I was a libertarialoon, I'd still be complaining about paying 1/4 of my income in FIT