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Why Ron Paul is Cool and Harry Reid is NOT
Why aren't we up in arms over this? The colonialist rebelled over far less than what we are putting up with. Then we have Harry Reid as a "leader" in the senate. Compare Ron Paul with Harry Reid below. Why aren't we up in arms over this? The colonialist rebelled over far less than what we are putting up with. Then we have Harry R... more
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Charles Rangle's Tax Problem
Hey you guys can investigate Rangle if we can investigate Palin
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Rangel lobbied IRS for tax breaks on behalf of Yankees
The city and the Yankees secretly crafted a letter Rep. Charles Rangel used to lobby the IRS for tax changes that would save the team $66 million, the Daily News has learned.
They did this at the same time Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and the team's law firm, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, raised almost $25,000 for Rangel, records show.
The law firm's political action committee also donated an additional $30,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in this election cycle. Rangel is chairman of the DCCC's board of directors and a key fund-raiser for House Democrats. Yankees President Randy Levine is senior counsel at Akin Gump.
The Rangel letter was just one weapon in the Yankees' ongoing battle to get more tax-exempt financing for the new stadium rising in the Bronx. Last year, the team got $942 million in tax-free bonds through a city agency, but the team wants $350 million more.
If the new bonds go through, the Yankees would lower their borrowing costs by $66 million on top of the $181 million they're already set to save from the first round of tax-free bonds, the Independent Budget Office estimates.
Internal e-mails and correspondence obtained by The News under the Freedom of Information Act show how the Yankees and Mayor Bloomberg's top deputies have worked hand in hand to win special tax breaks for America's richest team.
In one letter, the Yankees invited city officials to a special behind-the-scenes MLB preview of the 2007 All-Star game in San Francisco. This year's All-Star game was held at Yankee Stadium. City officials could not say which officials went or how much the trip cost taxpayers.
A key obstacle for the Yankees' financing remains the Internal Revenue Service. That's where Rangel, chairman of the powerful tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, came in. The city and the Yankees secretly crafted a letter Rep. Charles Rangel used to lobby the IRS for tax changes that would save the team ... more -
A Nevada Jury slams California Tax Board with 388 Million
A case that has dragged through courts for a decade has resulted in a staggering $388 million award for a Las Vegas inventor against California state tax authorities.
Mark Hutchison, lead attorney for inventor Gilbert Hyatt, said he expects an appeal to the verdicts issued over the past two weeks in Clark County District Court.
"This phase of the case is over," he said. "I'd be shocked if this is the end, based on how hard the California Franchise Tax Board has fought every step of the way for 10 years."
The civil lawsuit was filed in 1998, alleging fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, abuse of process, breach of confidential relationship and invasions of privacy, Hutchison said.
An eight-member civil jury decided against the tax agency, awarding Hyatt more than $138 million in liability and compensatory damages on Aug. 6 and $250 million in punitive damages Thursday, he said. The decision to award those amounts was unanimous in the first verdict and 7-1 in the second, he said. A case that has dragged through courts for a decade has resulted in a staggering $388 million award for a Las Vegas inventor against C... more -
IRS Gets Crushed in Washington State
Seattle, Washington - Two innocent and patriotic citizens dodge 64 IRS lethal bullets in a triumph for justice and the American way.
Last Christmas, the spirit of the season bestowed upon a Montrose, Colorado couple the greatest gift of all, freedom! James and Pamela Moran, facing a possible 180 combined years of incarceration were found not guilty by a jury of their peers on all 64 charges of an indictment in a Federal Courtroom. This victory defied all odds because the Moranís were convicted of the same charges in December of 2004. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the Moranís 2004 convictions, granting them the new trial.
A victory for us all! Seattle, Washington - Two innocent and patriotic citizens dodge 64 IRS lethal bullets in a triumph for justice and the American way. ... more -
Lone accountant takes on IRS and wins
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It took seven years, but Charles Ulrich did something many people dream about, but few succeed at: He beat the IRS in a tax dispute.
Not only that, but tax experts say potentially millions of other taxpayers could benefit from his victory.
The accountant from Baxter, Minn., challenged the method the IRS has used for more than 20 years to tax shares and cash distributed by mutual life insurance firms to their policyholders when they reorganize as public companies.
A federal court recently agreed with his interpretation.
"There's a tremendous amount of money at stake," said Robert Willens, a New York City-based tax analyst at Robert Willens LLC. "Tens of thousands of people could be in line for a refund."
Don Alexander, an IRS commissioner in the 1970s and now a tax attorney in Washington, said while it's not unusual for individuals to take on the agency, "most of them lose."
Alexander called it "quite a significant case."
The dispute arose when more than 30 mutual life insurance companies became publicly traded corporations in the late 1990s and earlier this decade, in a process known as "demutualization."
Mutual companies are owned by their policyholders, so the companies provided stock and cash to compensate them for the loss of their ownership interests when they went public.
All told, roughly 30 million policyholders received distributions, Ulrich estimates. MetLife Inc. provided over $7 billion of stock to about 11 million policyholders when it went public in 2000, while Prudential distributed $12.5 billion in stock to another 11 million.
The IRS held that the recipients hadn't paid anything for the shares and owed taxes on the full amount when the shares were sold. Cash distributions also were fully taxable, the IRS said WASHINGTON (AP) -- It took seven years, but Charles Ulrich did something many people dream about, but few succeed at: He beat the IRS ... more -
Lone accountant takes on IRS and wins
WASHINGTON — It took seven years, but Charles Ulrich did something many people dream about, but few succeed at: He beat the IRS in a tax dispute.
Not only that, but tax experts say potentially millions of other taxpayers could benefit from his victory.
The accountant from Baxter, Minn., challenged the method the IRS has used for more than 20 years to tax shares and cash distributed by mutual life insurance firms to their policyholders when they reorganize as public companies.
A federal court recently agreed with his interpretation.
Read full article at link above- WASHINGTON — It took seven years, but Charles Ulrich did something many people dream about, but few succeed at: He beat the IRS in a t... more -
Florida bank closed by FDIC - Aug. 1, 2008
Federal regulators closed Florida's First Priority Bank on Friday, marking the eighth bank failure of the year.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was named the receiver of the failed bank, entered into an agreement with Atlanta-based SunTrust Bank (STI, Fortune 500) to assume the insured deposits of First Priority.
All six branches of the Bradenton, Fla.-based bank will reopen on Monday as branches of SunTrust. First Priority depositors will automatically become depositors of SunTrust, the FDIC said.
First Priority had assets of $259 million and total deposits of $227 million, according to the FDIC. That includes $13 million in uninsured deposits held in approximately 840 accounts that potentially exceeded the federal insurance limits.
Account holders with more than the $100,000 insured limit will essentially "become a creditor" of the failed bank, said FDIC spokesman Andrew Gray.
Those accounts will be credited as the FDIC sells more of the failed bank's assets, Gray said.
SunTrust Bank will purchase approximately $42 million of the failed First Priority's assets, which are made up of mainly cash, cash equivalents and securities.
And LNV Corp. of Plano, Texas, a subsidiary of Beal Bank Nevada, will purchase $14 million in First Priority's assets.
The remaining $171 million in assets will be sold by the FDIC. Proceeds of these sales will be used to pay creditors including bank clients whose accounts exceed the $100,000 limit. Federal regulators closed Florida's First Priority Bank on Friday, marking the eighth bank failure of the year. ... more -
Super-Rich tax cheats
They hide an estimated $100 billion a year from the IRS, but now the US Senate is turning up the heat on super-rich tax cheats. The man who ratted out some of these tax dodgers now lives in hiding and has a $10 million bounty on his head. This is a story straight out of our new Gilded Age -- one of billionaires, foreign bankers, corruption, secrecy and, of course, greed. They hide an estimated $100 billion a year from the IRS, but now the US Senate is turning up the heat on super-rich tax cheats. The ma... more
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New Bill Requires Credit Card Transactions Reported To IRS
Slipped into the housing bill that President Bush says he will sign into law tomorrow, is
"a measure that would require credit card companies and electronic payment processors, such as PayPal, to file aggregate transaction reports with the IRS listing their total annual payments to individual merchants who receive more than $10,000 and conduct more than 200 transactions each year. "
This bill also will create a national fingerprint database by requiring individuals in the mortgage
lending business to keep their digits on file.
So, if only these two measures had been in place before, I guess nobody would have defaulted on their mortgages and we could have prevented a government bailout......
ha! Slipped into the housing bill that President Bush says he will sign into law tomorrow, is ... more -
Hundreds of super rich under investigation
Hundreds of rich Americans whose names and secret foreign bank account information were turned over to US tax authorities could face criminal prosecution. A Senate committee is scheduled to convene tomorrow and among those called to testify are foreign bank account holders, including one of the wealthiest men in Los Angeles.
Are America's wealthiest citizens cheating the government out of billions?
48 year-old Peter Lowy and his family own the giant Westfield shopping center fortune and will control the retail space in the rebuilt World Trade Center in New York. Bob Bennett, a lawyer for Lowy, who is a prominent contributor to both Democratic and Republican candidates, told ABC News that Lowy's name was on the list of secret accounts from a Liechtenstein bank but that Lowy did nothing wrong.
Bennett said Lowy is out of the country tomorrow and will not be available to testify. Hundreds of rich Americans whose names and secret foreign bank account information were turned over to US tax authorities could face c... more -
Nevada businessman trumped the IRS in federal court, challenged America's dua...
"On a 106-degree May afternoon in 2003, government agents raided several establishments belonging to Southern Nevada businessman Robert 'Bobby' Kahre. With guns drawn, officials held more than 20 handcuffed workers in the sun without water as agents collected records and other materials.
Kahre hadn’t committed a crime. He had upset the Internal Revenue Service by paying his workers based on the face value of gold and silver coins, versus the market value in the Federal Reserve system (the value of the coins in U.S. paper dollars). Even though the coins were in circulation, displayed a face value, and were regulated by Congress, the IRS’s confusing and endless tax code did not determine how to handle these gold and silver coins if used for payroll. The tax code only references dollars. It does not distinguish between coined money and paper money.
Kahre didn’t opt for the precious metal bullion system without first doing his homework. He consulted monetary experts, engaged in extensive research, and even met with congressmen. Kahre’s conclusion was simple: While the currency in the precious-metal system was greater in value than the currency in the other system, as money and a medium of exchange, the law knows no difference between the face value of both currencies..."
(End of excerpt)
Full story at link by Mike Zigler// Liberty Watch "On a 106-degree May afternoon in 2003, government agents raided several establishments belonging to Southern Nevada businessman ... more -
IRS seeks names of 20,000 Swiss bank clients
Federal authorities asked a federal court on Monday to force UBS, the Swiss banking giant, to turn over the names of wealthy American clients suspected of evading taxes through secret offshore accounts.
The request, from the Justice Department, is part of a widening federal investigation into the private banking services offered by UBS to Americans. While that investigation has centered on a former top UBS private banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, an American, it is rapidly broadening to include bank clients.
The request was made in court papers filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami by R. Alexander Acosta, the top federal prosecutor in Florida. The papers are related to the separate criminal case against Mr. Birkenfeld, who pleaded guilty last month to a single fraud charge and is cooperating with investigators.
The investigation threatens to peel back layers of Swiss banking secrecy, a tradition that began in the Middle Ages.
It also increasingly promises to put UBS, the world’s largest private bank, on a collision course with American prosecutors and regulators, who argue that Swiss secrecy laws do not apply to American clients who were sold UBS services.
UBS said in a statement that it was aware of the request, known as a John Doe summons, and that “UBS takes this matter very seriously and is working diligently with both Swiss and U.S. government authorities, consistent with Swiss law and the legal frameworks for intergovernmental cooperation and assistance.”
A federal judge could rule on the request as early as this week, according to people briefed on the matter. Approval of the request could open the floodgates to a flow of information about offshore tax evasion.
Douglas H. Shulman, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said in a statement: “We will be taking additional steps to ferret out offshore tax avoidance beyond today’s announcement involving UBS. If service of the John Doe summons is approved, the I.R.S. will pursue people and advisers identified through the summons process who use offshore bank and financial accounts to circumvent their tax responsibilities.”
UBS is considering whether to turn over to the United States authorities the names of as many as 20,000 American clients as part of the criminal investigation, but it is grappling with pressure from Swiss banking and legal circles not to betray Swiss confidences. Unlike in the United States, tax evasion is legal in Switzerland. Tax fraud, however, is not.
Prosecutors suspect that UBS helped American clients stash $20 billion overseas in secret offshore accounts, evading $300 million or more in taxes. Federal authorities asked a federal court on Monday to force UBS, the Swiss banking giant, to turn over the names of wealthy American ... more -
IRS was defeated by the use of the true money
On September 17, the jury returned its verdict refusing to convict all nine defendants of any of the 161 federal tax crimes they had been charged with. One would think, “we the tax payers would want to hear that the IRS was defeated by the use of the true money.” To my knowledge, the results of this trial were never printed or broadcast by any of the major news media. Three days after the trial’s conclusion, the Las Vegas Review Journal ran its first and last story about the outcome and then only because of public pressure from interested parties who attended the trial.
Robert Kahre owns a family business and instead of using paper money he paid his workers with gold and silver coins minted by the United States government. He paid them based on the “face value” of the coins. If he paid a worker a dollar an hour he paid with a silver dollar, which states on the coin that it is “one dollar” regardless of today’s value. His wages were so low that he didn’t have to file W-2 income tax forms or withhold taxes or pay workman’s comp. This upset the IRS, which charged him and his family with 161 federal tax crimes.
Thank God we still have justice in this country. Let's hold onto it. It's worth more than money. Justice! On September 17, the jury returned its verdict refusing to convict all nine defendants of any of the 161 federal tax crimes they had b... more -
A fair Tax Code?
Rich people pay the lion's share of the taxes in the US. They don't just pay the most money, they pay the largest percentage of their income. Rich people pay the lion's share of the taxes in the US. They don't just pay the most money, they pay the largest percentage... more
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AMERICA: Freedom to Fascism
From freedomtofascism.com:
"America: Freedom to Fascism is a compelling and troubling account of how the wealth of our nation was silently passed from its citizens to a handful of powerful bankers in 1913. That's the year the Federal Reserve Act and the 16th Amendment were introduced, giving a privately held corporation the means to control our finances while ensuring its interest payments through the strong arms of the newly-formed Internal Revenue Service. Ever since then, Russo suggests, Americans have been gradually conditioned to accept fewer freedoms and a lower standard of living... all the while considering debt and servitude as distinctly American values.
Russo's first and most cogent point is simple: Americans are not required to pay a federal income tax. That's a bold statement to make, as few people believe that such a fraud could be perpetrated for so long. My father, himself an accountant, insists that the income tax is a very real thing. Russo takes that same belief to IRS employees and simply asks them to cite where it says an unapportioned income tax is required of us all. Guess what? They can't. In a telling segment Sheldon Cohen, former commissioner of the IRS, goes so far as to reject Supreme Court rulings and the Constitution as benchmarks over what is legal with regards to taxation. Russo also interviews members of the tax honesty movement as well as disenfranchised IRS agents who agree that no law on the books conjures up a requirement to send the government part of one's hard-earned paycheck. Russo then showcases court cases where those accused of tax evasion have won precisely because the prosecution cannot provide evidence of a legal federal income tax law.
It's shocking to have it hammered into your head over and over that you've thrown your money away for nothing, but repetition is good; it helps knock loose the deeply entrenched belief that we owe a portion of our livelihood to our government."
(Sorry I couldn't make the video bigger. Click on Google Video to view film in full size.)
Aaron Russo's Restore the Republic website
http://www.restoretherepublic.com/
To order the film on DVD or for more information visit
http://www.freedomtofascism.com/ From freedomtofascism.com: ... more -
What Do the IRS, Mayan 2012 Date and Beings From The Earth's Core Have in Com...
A man named 'Stephen" tells a fascinating tale of his search for answers about the world bank, the establishment of the IRS, the Mayan 2012 'end of the world' scenerio, an 1800's document brought by a 'being from the center of the earth' and ET's - I don't know quite what to make of it all, but a best it's an interesting 'story' and at worse some of it may be true. You decide and let me know what you think? A man named 'Stephen" tells a fascinating tale of his search for answers about the world bank, the establishment of the IRS,... more
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Snipes Going to Prison for Tax Evasion
Blade star Wesley Snipes was sentenced to 3 years in prison, the maximum penalty suggested by federal prosecutors, on Thursday for evading taxes. Blade star Wesley Snipes was sentenced to 3 years in prison, the maximum penalty suggested by federal prosecutors, on Thursday for eva... more
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Portland, Oregon couple refuses to pay taxes for 30 years to protest military fund...
A recent study by the National Priorities Project shows more than 40 percent of every income tax dollar in 2007 went towards military spending. The largest share of that was for the war in Iraq, which has been estimated to cost taxpayers $12 billion per month. The total amount allocated for the Iraq war through fiscal year 2008 is more than $520 billion.
To protest the continued funding of the war, some Americans are taking a stand today by personally refusing to fund the military. Tax resisters across the country are planning to withhold part or all of their taxes to protest the war.
Pat and John Schwiebert have been war tax resisters for the past thirty years. John Schwiebert is a retired pastor who spent more than four decades as a United Methodist minister. His wife Pat Schwiebert is a registered nurse who founded support groups for parents who have lost their children. A recent study by the National Priorities Project shows more than 40 percent of every income tax dollar in 2007 went towards military ... more -
Can Bloggers Write Everything Off?
The IRS does not have the clear legal vocabulary to properly define what bloggers and podcasters, more specifically ones that air their lives for profit, can write off on their taxes. Really interesting article that talks about this. The IRS does not have the clear legal vocabulary to properly define what bloggers and podcasters, more specifically ones that air thei... more
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