NH Man attempts to not pay federal taxes...

[bobman0330]

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"The Browns, who insist federal income tax laws are invalid, were sentenced to 5½ years in prison in April. They were also ordered to forfeit $215,890 to the government — the amount the government says the Browns purchased in small postal money orders in order to avoid paying income tax on Elaine Brown's dental practice income of $1.9 million between 1996 and 2003."

Jeezus...most "real" criminals don't get anywhere near that kind of time. I guess the government is making an example of these people. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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If New Hampshire secedes, I am there.

The power to tax is the power to destroy--John Marshall

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How is that quote at all relevant, even a little bit?

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Let's see--these people don't believe in paying taxes (debatable in many people's eyes), government says you owe money and gets them thrown in jail because they didn't pay their taxes.

I thought it was pretty obvious myself in terms of the overall story--maybe not the siege part though.

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Well, first of all, they weren't sentenced to jail for not paying, they were sentenced for not filing and for hiding their income. (Also, the validity of the income tax laws is not in any debate except to the ignorant, the misinformed, and liars.)

And second, the John Marshall quote refers to a fear that the gov't would tax an institution out of existence. You can't tax a person out of existence. To use that quote to refer to general penal power to enforce a constitutional power completely robs it of any meaning. You could just as well say that the power to establish and regulate the post office is the power to destroy, because you can send people to prison for sending unsafe materials through the mails.

[NeBlis]

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Also, the validity of the income tax laws is not in any debate except to the ignorant, the misinformed, and liars.

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You mean valid from a purely legal point of view right? Because if you mean valid from an ethical, useful, necessary point of view your wrong.

[bills217]

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Well, first of all, they weren't sentenced to jail for not paying, they were sentenced for not filing and for hiding their income.

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OK, here, you try to make it sound like it's not such a big deal that they're not paying, but that it's a HUGE deal that they are "hiding their income."

If not paying taxes is not such a big deal, then how can you possibly say "hiding your income" (is it anyone else's business?) is such a big deal?

That is a good way of making what the gov't is doing sound less thuggish, tho. Maybe the mafia will start using that explanation in an effort to be more family-friendly.

<font color="white"> HINT: IT IS CLEARLY OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE WITH A BRAIN THE SIZE OF A HYDROGEN MOLECULE THAT THE ISSUE IS NOT PAYING </font>

[bobman0330]

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Well, first of all, they weren't sentenced to jail for not paying, they were sentenced for not filing and for hiding their income.

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OK, here, you try to make it sound like it's not such a big deal that they're not paying, but that it's a HUGE deal that they are "hiding their income."

If not paying taxes is not such a big deal, then how can you possibly say "hiding your income" (is it anyone else's business?) is such a big deal?

That is a good way of making what the gov't is doing sound less thuggish, tho. Maybe the mafia will start using that explanation in an effort to be more family-friendly.

<font color="white"> HINT: IT IS CLEARLY OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE WITH A BRAIN THE SIZE OF A HYDROGEN MOLECULE THAT THE ISSUE IS NOT PAYING </font>

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Further research reveals that a failure to pay count is probably one of the things they were charged with, but I remain confident that most or all of their prison time is related to fraud and concealment charges.

I'm not advising anyone to do this, but if you file a complete tax return and just tell the government that you can't or won't pay the tax bill, you'll get off much easier than if you don't file or file falsely and they find out. Sure they'll garnish your bank accounts and take your house, but they probably won't bother to try to send you to prison.

[rwesty]

http://beta.cnn.com/2007/US/06/21/ta....ap/index.html