When you are firmly convinced that the federal tax law doesn’t apply to sovereign citizens of (your state) when enforced in a courtroom with a gold-fringed flag using standard punctuation, you rarely get good news from the courts. That may explain why the tax denier crowd got all excited when tax protest figure Joe Banister was acquitted of tax conspiracy charges in 2005.
Tax protesters crowed that the acquittal vindicated their theories. That’s true only if you think that O.J. Simpson’s acquittal means multiple homicides are legal in Brentwood. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed that tax laws still apply to Mr. Banister. The appeals court upheld a Tax Court decision requiring Mr. Banister to pay $4,551 in 2002 taxes, plus penalties.
Of course, no amount of evidence will shake the real tax protest true believers. Anybody with sense, though, will look at the unbroken record of failure of tax protesters in actually avoiding taxes in court and realize that the tax protest stuff just doesn’t work.
Cite: Banister, CA-9, No. 09-70775.
Link: IRS publication “The Truth About Frivolous Tax Arguments.”
Tags: Joe Banister, tax protesters
Joe Kristan writes the Tax Update items, and any opinions expressed or implied are not necessarily shared by anyone else at Roth & Company, P.C. Address questions or comments on Tax Updates to
“the real tax protest true believers.”
Channeling Steve Martin