A Different Sort of Tax Rebellion

A man is arrested when he tries to pay his property tax in tightly-folded $1 bills.

The Times Record News of Wichita Falls, Texas, reports:

Wichita County Sheriff's Office

A Wichita Falls man was arrested by a Wichita County Sheriff's Office deputy Jan. 28 for refusing to leave the Wichita County Courthouse Annex while trying to pay his property tax in $1 bills.

According to the affidavit:

The deputy was at the Annex, 600 Scott Street, just after 2 p.m. when Wichita County Tax Assessor Collector Tommy Smyth asked Timothy Andrew Norris, 27, to leave the tax office. Smyth accused Norris of disrupting the operation and efficiency of the tax office by attempting to pay $600-worth of property taxes with $1 bills. The bills were said to be folded so tightly it "required tax office personnel approximately six minutes to unfold each bill."

When Norris refused, he was arrested and charged with criminal trespass.

Norris then reportedly resisted arrest, leading to a second charge. Someone had better be writing a folksong about this.

Comments

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

I believe the verbiage on each bill still reads:

"This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private."

[Illocust]

Yep, the government can't refuse to accept cash. In a just world the employee would lose their job over trying to refuse to do so.

[Drake]

Exhibit 1 in his Defense.

[Harold Falcon]

There is no law requiring any person, corporation, or government entity to accept payment in cash. Just because payment in cash is authorized for payment of debts, doesn't mean it has to be accepted.

[Paul.]

You didn't get the memo. Not accepting cash would be racist.

[kinnath]

It would seem so 😉

However, the text below does not make it clear that a "government agency" may refuse cash.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/....._12772.htm

Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," states: "United States coins and currency [including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks] are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."

This statute means that all United States money as identified above is a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law which says otherwise.

[HeteroPatriarch]

There is a law requiring government entities to accept payment in cash. I work for a regulated utility; trust me on this.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Or what Kinnath said.

[GroundTruth]

They why print the above statement on each bill? You don't need a law to say that a law must be followed.

[CE]

Maybe he folded them so tightly the legal tender part couldn't be read.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Norris' bail totaled $500 for both charges. He was not in the Wichita County Jail Monday.

I guess the bail clerk had five minutes to spare.

[Mr Whipple]

Did he post his bail in pennies?

[retiredfire]

Maybe you missed the part where it said it took six minutes to unfold EACH BILL.
IOW, 60 hours to accept payment.

[Governor Squid]

Tough darts. They don't generally care when we complain about how long it takes to gather our documents and fill out their forms.

[The Late P Brooks]

Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen.

Woody Guthrie was a dirty commie, so he'd probably side with the Commissars on this.

[Charles Easterly]

"Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home."

[The Late P Brooks]

Smyth accused Norris of disrupting the operation and efficiency of the tax office

TERRORISM!

[Pope Jimbo]

I'm guessing his real crime was he failed to bend his knee and tug his forelock like a decent peasant should when addressing his superiors.

[Bones]

6 minutes to unfold EACH bill? How is this possible. You can only fold the bill 7 times (according to internet forwards). It shouldn't take more than 10 seconds to unfold it completely.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

File with $30,000,000,000,000,000,000 drug busts

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

We used to fold fivers into a bow-tie and hold em up to our neck at the titty bar, kind of like a more ostentatious version of Tucker Carlson.

[HeteroPatriarch]

It's impossible to be a more ostentatious version of Tucker Carlson.

[Zeb]

You can fold a piece of paper in half 7 times. You can fold it more times if you aren't doubling the total thickness each time. For example, he could have made each bill into some origami thing, which, if they didn't want to rip the bills, would take some time.

[Rhywun]

Or you can do what MythBusters did and make a football-sized sheet of paper.

[Rhywun]

Sigh... Football *field* sized.

[Pepperjack]

So can we assume that the money he was using to pay his taxes was stolen civil forfeitured?

[Paul.]

Well, it was going to fund a criminal enterprise.

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

Zing!

[The Late P Brooks]

6 minutes to unfold EACH bill?

We're dealing with highly sophisticated government clockwatchers, here.

[Scarecrow Repair]

That implies it took him at least six minutes to fold each bill. That's 10 per hour, or 60 hours.

Dude's got plenty of time now to fold the $500 for bail.

[kinnath]

Slightly Off Topic 😉

http://www.slate.com/blogs/out.....video.html

When does a lesbian lose her virginity?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Wait, I know this joke...

[kinnath]

Is Chuck Norris involved?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Just chickens

[CE]

I think Fist might be.

[SugarFree]

As traditionally defined, never. But for practicalities sake when consent is involved, it would be when she has experienced genital contact intended to create sexual pleasure.

Or the first time she rents a U-Haul.

[Harold Falcon]

So by that rationale a male loses his virginity at birth, when his penis passes through his mother's vagina.

[Zeb]

Only if he is a lesbian.

[Pope Jimbo]

Babies are under the age of majority so they cannot give consent. So male babies are actually raped when they path through their mother's birth canal by your logic. 😉

[sarcasmic]

I put this in the Mourning Lynx a couple days ago.

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

I sure hope that you were not expecting a hat tip!

[sarcasmic]

I know better than that.

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

Thought so...so it was more of a lament than a request.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Here you go @ 4:00

[Pope Jimbo]

Completely OT: Jon Gruber thinks a direct tax on fatties is OK.

Ultimately, what may be needed to address the obesity problem are direct taxes on body weight. While it is hard to conceive of this approach being a common public policy tool in the near term, such taxation may be happening indirectly through health insurance surcharges.

http://www.nihcm.org/pdf/Exper.....il2010.pdf

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Gruber's a utilitarian. He would think death camps were OK if it served the greater good.

[kinnath]

Death Camp; Health Spa; To may to; to mah to.

[Paul.]

According to the media (and implicitly telegraphed by the SCOTUS). entirely constitutional.

[CatoTheElder]

The legality of such is already established. ObamaCare premiums already punish smokers.

[Zeb]

I'm OK with that provided they transfer the money to very thin people like me to compensate me for having to see so many fat people.

[Astra]

I read this as John Gruden and thought "well, he should talk."

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[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Do you use withholding?

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

Perhaps, but not spellcheck.

[Lord Humungus]

Escort service?

[CE]

Sign twirlers?

[Derpetologist]

I will be driving past the scene of the crime when I go to IHOP later. Man, there sure is a lot of derp going on in this part of Texas.

I will miss it.

[The Late P Brooks]

When does a lesbian lose her virginity?

Trick question: eatin' ain't cheatin'.

[Rebel Scum]

Hm, I thought each currency note explicitly stated that it is "LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE".

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Our love for him now
Ain't hard to explain
The hero of Wichita Falls
The man they call Norris

[The Late P Brooks]

Paying your property taxes in cash in a "busy" county office is just like yelling FIRE in a crowded theater!

[Zeb]

yelling FIRE in a crowded theater!

I've done that. It was much less interesting than I expected.

[TheKman71]

I'll start work on the song now!

[Richard Fitzwell]

At least the story does not end with him being shot.

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[D. M. Michell]

Property taxes means you don't own your property. You rent it from the government. Refuse to pay, they will evict you. Refuse to be evicted, they will send armed men to evict you. Resist the armed men and they can and probably will kill you. Yea! Government by the people and for the people. NOT!

[woodNfish]

It's a free country - NOT!

[woodNfish]

How can he be charged with trespassing on public property where he has a right to be? And as for resisting arrest - they were assaulting him by putting their hands on him. Not guilty on all counts, plus costs and awards for the government abusing his rights.

[Laird]

I don't know whether I am more impressed by the fact that he took what clearly must have been an extraordinary amount of time to fold up all those bills so tightly, or by the incompetence of the tax department staff who required 6 minutes to unfold them!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Warty strikes again

[Pope Jimbo]

C'mon! What did they expect from a Warty pig (redundancy alert)?

[Pope Jimbo]

Curses! A day late and a dollar short again.