Attorney Acquitted on Federal Income Tax Charges
July 19th, 2007Maybe the Browns should have hired this guy for their trial…
Via: Shreveport Times:
A Shreveport attorney who has challenged the government for years on the legality of filing federal income taxes has been acquitted on charges he failed to file returns.
A federal jury unanimously found Tommy Cryer not guilty this week on two misdemeanor counts of failure to file.
And according to Cryer, the prosecution dismissed two felony charges of tax evasion prior to trial.
Attempts by The Times on Thursday to reach U.S. Attorney Donald Washington or Bill Flanagan, first assistant U.S. attorney, were not successful. Calls made to the two were not immediately returned.
“The court could not find a law that makes me liable or makes my revenues taxable,” Cryer said. “The Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot impose an income tax on anything but the profits and gains. When you work for someone you give your service and labor in exchange for money, so everything you make is not profit or gain. You put something into it.”
Cryer was indicted last year on two counts of tax evasion. The indictment alleged he evaded payment of $73,000 in income tax to the Internal Revenue Service during 2000 and 2001.
Cryer created a trust listing himself as the trustee, and received payments of dividends, interest and stock income to that trust, according to the indictment. He also was accused of concealing his receipt of the sources of income from the IRS by failing to file a tax return on behalf of that trust.
“I determined that my personal earnings were not 100 percent profits, some were income,” Cryer said. “I refuse to file, I refuse to pay unless they can show me I have a lawful reason to pay.”
“What I earned was my own personal labor. I am giving something in exchange. I’m giving my property and I don’t belong to anyone else.”
Cryer says he stopped filing returns more than 10 years ago after he investigated claims that income tax was a sham. He contends the law doesn’t actually tax personal earning.
Have you ever read something that makes you smile and feel happy for folks who have brains as well as gumption?
This did it for me!!!
The Brown story was on NPR the other morning. NPR chose to replay sound bites from Randy Weaver and the Cherry Ridge massacre, then played Mr. Brown’s speechifying saying “show me the law!” http://www.npr.org/templates/dmg/popup.php?id=12026389&type=1&date=17-Jul-2007&au=1&pid=24115344&random=2024222552&guid=000988AC203606A021E58EB961626364&uaType=WM,RM&aaType=RM,WM&upf=Win32&topicName=Business&subtopicName=Your_Money&prgCode=ME&hubId=-1&thingId=12026388&ssid=&tableModifier=&mtype=WM
The story portrayed the Brown’s as lunatic fringe. NPR…my gawd. People in New Hampshire are getting tired. National Propaganda Radio.
I guess (somehow) the feds weren’t able to rig this jury.
Looks like this turkey doesn’t like to share with the rst of the flock. Who pays for all the federal sevices he consumes. Freedom fighter- nuts. A selfish git.
@Ken
This selfishness doesn’t bother me. If you can resist a fraction of your own energy being swallowed up by the beast and turned into bullets, why not?
On second thought, you’re right. We should all line up and give exactly what the taxman demands.
Good for Cryer. Yes, he consumes some federal services.
That’s not the issue.
The issue is that he called BS on a tax system that should not be demanding money from him.
And don’t confuse what’s fair with what’s the law.
I’m all for paying my fair share, along with ALL other parties paying their’s. That means Exxon and Shell don’t have anymore sub- USD$1000 tax bills.
The problem is, they are operating within the bounds of the law, not within the bounds of what’s fair.
Bottom line: Income does not equal wages, and never has. Try actually reading the relevant parts of the tax code, and you might come to the same conclusion Cryer came to.
“Looks like this turkey doesn’t like to share with the rest of the flock. Who pays for all the federal sevices he consumes. Freedom fighter- nuts. A selfish git.”
What if I don’t want, need or use the so-called “services”? Is it “selfish” of me not to want to pay for your “services? How did I become obligated to “share with the rest of the flock”? Why can’t I just pay for the “services” that I want, need and use?
That would be freedom, not forced “sharing”.
@Ken
Actually, you’re off-track on your comment.. US Federal taxes don’t pay for services, they only pay the ‘interest’ on the ‘national debt’, which means interest to private bankers who own the Federal Reserve, who print money out of thin air. The ‘services’ you speak of are rendered with other taxes, as they always had been before 1913 (read your history – before 1913 there was no income tax in the US, and the country worked wonderfully).
The taxation system in the US is a giant scam, and more people seem to be discovering that fact as of late.. but in the end it won’t make a difference, since critical mass will probably never wake up to the fraud that’s being committed.
“Consumption of federal services”! What federal services? I don’t see that I receive anything from the feds except pain and misery. It would be better if all our tax dollars were burnt to ash then to give them to the immensely criminal feds. Of course if they gave me all my money back I’d call it quits.
I was afraid of this. The plaintiff has succeeded in identifying exactly where the income tax laws are vulnerable. Look for Congress to close the loopholes in a couple of days.
Selfishness my ass. We’re all so duped by what we’ve been told- “Pay your taxes and the government will cover one’s basic needs.” Well guess what? I paid my taxes and the feds let my city drown after a certain major storm. Not to mention the contracts made out to a certain mercenary group to come and “clean-up” the situation.
It’s 2 years later and nothing has been done to the most damaged parts of the city. A friend from Germany was in town and remarked at how in that country a debilitated area like ours would’ve been fixed up by now. I paid my hard earned money to the feds and they let us down and continue to do so.
Go ahead, pay your taxes so we can go maim and kill people worldwide and take their resources all under the guise of “spreading democracy” or “we gotta get them there before they get us here”. What a bunch of crap. They(Feds) are biting the hand(you and me) that feeds them.
The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: “Your money or your life….” But the highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he intends to use the money stolen for your benefit. He does not pretend to be anything but a robber. He has not acquired impudence to enable him to “protect” those infatuated travelers who feel perfectly able to protect themselves, or do not appreciate his peculiar system of protection. He is too sensible a man to make such professions as these. Furthermore, having taken your money he leaves you as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following you on the road, against your will, assuming to be your rightful “sovereign”, on account of the “protection” he affords you. He does not keep “protecting” you, by commanding you to bow down and serve him, by requiring you to do this and forbidding you to do that, by robbing you of more money as often as he find it for his interest or pleasure to do so, and by branding you as a rebel, a traitor, and an enemy to your country, and shooting you down without mercy, if you dispute his authority or resist his demands. He is too much a gentleman to be guilty of such impostures and insults and villainies as these. In short, he does not, in addition to robbing you, attempt to make you either his dupe or his slave. -Lysander Spooner
Let’s consult one of the Founders on this:
“Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
– James Madison, April 20, 1795
I would say we have arrived at the situation Madison described in the last sentence.
Actually, there is no Federal Income Tax Law. It is a precedent rendered by an opinion written by the Solicitor General of the Supreme Court back in 1913. Courts cite this opinion as the means to defeat tax protests and usually also comment that the opinion does not require re-evaluation.
It appears that the Fox is running the Hen house.
Its the same with property taxes. So why should I have to pay for public schools if I, or anyone else for that matter, have no children attending them? Hmmm? If on the other hand I did, and I wished to use said “services”, then it would be appropriate, but as it stands its merely wholesale theft in the name of “the common-good” Thats a load of BS if there ever was one.
I look at it like this… if schools, public hospitals etc. can’t function without welfare payments being pickpocketed out of mine and everyone elses wallets then let them fail because someone in the free market will be willing to provide services for money if the market is there. Its because government of all shapes and sizes interjects itself into our lives, and not at our request, that the market is so warped.
Take hospitals for example… if I’m paying for the damn thing, and have for many many years, why is it that when I show up for an emergency you could swear the bill in no way reflects your “contributions” for years past. Its all been pissed away. Most likely for the illegal who scurried across the border.
And why do I have to pay for “unemployment insurance”? The money, when I get laid off, is not there for me unless I dive through hoops no mortal should have to for his purported “investment”. Just cut me a damn check for the total amount and lets call it even. Dammit! No government droid is going to be motivated to find work for me or anyone else because there is no incentive to do so. So get rid of the tax and the agency and let things sort themselves out without the added burden and more corruption.
Income tax is the most masterful fraud to ever have been foisted on this people. That more are finding out about it only means that the end is nigh for the present system so that everything will be buried under panic and chaos. The true criminals won’t be seeing jail time.
I was actually surprised to discover many of my friends don’t pay federal income tax when I talked to them about this.
They are ususally self employed, so they have control over what they actually pay.
Apparently, they don’t even try to hide it, yet nothing ever happens. One friend thinks that since he has never paid, he is under the radar.
None of these folks are rich, so the gov’t isn’t missing much from them compared to the big breaks for big biz, but I still applaud their courage.