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 |  Subject: Tax Terrorism & Fear -- Official IRS Policies  Sun Aug 30, 2009 7:02 am | |
| In 1757, one of the patron saints of conservative political philosophy, Edmund Burke, (below left) wrote: "No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear."
Two centuries later, America's newly elected president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt assured, a shaken America at his 1933 inauguration during the depths of The Great Depression that: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
In 1776, John Adams of Massachusetts, (below right) that fiery leader of the American Revolution, and second U.S. president, correctly observed: "Fear is the foundation of most governments.' Adams spoke of a tyrannical English king, but his words could be the official motto of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
IRS + UBS = Fear
Over the weekend Swissinfo.com published the views of Columbia University law professor John Coffee (below right) concerning the U.S.- Swiss settlement of the UBS tax evasion scandal. Coffee said that, in his opinion, creating fear in U.S. taxpayers was always the goal of the negotiations between the Swiss and U.S. governments, and that the court case brought in Miami against UBS was less about the bank than about instilling fear in all American taxpayers.
"The Internal Revenue Service was targeting American taxpayers who try to avoid paying tax," Coffee said. "The U.S. wants to scare and intimidate U.S. taxpayers into the voluntary disclosure program. It's all about a law enforcement strategy to intimidate people into voluntary disclosure."
All the views expressed above are in accord with those of Dr. Bradford DeLong, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley who was Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for Economic Policy from 1993 to 1995, by appointment of then President Bill Clinton. From that, I assume that Dr. DeLong may be a Democrat, or at least sympathetic to the doctrines of Clintonomics.
Random Terror
Commenting about tax policies, DeLong (below)nwrote: "The IRS's comparative advantage is using random terror to elicit voluntary compliance with the tax code on the part of relatively rich people."
Pause a moment and consider that the dictionary defines "terror" as an "intense, overpowering fear." It also suggests the word applies to "one that instills or has the ability to instill intense fear," as in, "violence committed or threatened by a group to intimidate or coerce a population, as for political purposes." The brutal sound of jackboots in dark streets comes to mind -- then that fateful knock on the door.
Professor DeLong may be right. "Random terror" indeed may be the traditional weapon used by the IRS in the UBS or any other tax case.
Columbia's law professor Coffee adds: "With the deal, the IRS can keep up their pressure on tax frauds and even increase it." He noted, as have I, that UBS clients who may be tax law violators have until September 23rd under an announced amnesty to contact the IRS if they want to face reduced penalties. Coffee told swissinfo. "No one can feel safe."
For the IRS, the strategy is to intimidate tax cheats into turning themselves in, professor Coffee believes, is "much more cost effective than dragging people through the court system." The tax section of the U.S. Dept. of Justice also lacks the personnel to pursue thousands of tax cases each year
Incomprehensible Tax Laws
So, friends, it isn't enough that the IRS feels it must resort to tax terrorism to collect what it claims is do from UBS clients.
That's bad enough, but just trying to understand the U.S. tax code is terrifying to all of us, what with the possibility of late interest, fines and even prison. Think what your immediate reaction would be if you got an IRS audit notice.
Aside from the injustice of taxes being spent for purposes with which we may disagree, the forced operation of the U.S. tax system itself is a major drain on the economy amounting to a national scandal.
Add up all costs of tax compliance (accountants, lawyers, etc.) and Americans pay over $100 billion annually, a cost figure that does not even include actual taxes paid! The administrative costs of the bloated 110,000 employee-IRS bureaucracy alone exceeds $10 billion a year. And now Obama's IRS wants still more money and more bureaucrats!
When the first national income tax became law in 1913, the entire Internal Revenue Code fit into a slim volume with 173 pages. Today, the IRC contains over 20,000 pages of laws, regulations, advisories and rulings. Forms, instructions, orders and notices take many thousands more pages.
Tax Gestapo
A few years ago congressional hearings on the IRS exposed publicly what many Americans knew already: the IRS too often conducts its affairs like a financial Gestapo, running roughshod over citizens rights.
One after another, witnesses offered proof of how ruthlessly the IRS had used its unbridled powers. This agency viewed all taxpayers as adversaries, assuming them guilty until they could prove otherwise. It snatched property, seized bank accounts and turned people out of their homes, often without regard to due process of law. Much of this activity was carried on in secret with little accountability.
In her book, Unbridled Power, (Harper Business Books, NYC, 1997) Shelley L. Davis, joined the many who have said that "IRS reform is long over due." She ought to know. She served as official historian of the IRS -- until she began to ask too many difficult questions. Then she was fired.
Tax Tyranny -- So?
Another Massachusetts patriot, James Otis, (right) was known as "the firebrand of the American revolution." His most famous utterance, in 1761, became the watchword of that revolution: "Taxation without representation is tyranny."
One need only consider the triple trillion dollar deficits of the current White House and Congress to realize we have long since passed into the tyranny of which Otis spoke.
* The Sovereign Society is a recognized voice in the complex offshore world. Join the Sovereign Society and keep informed.
http://baumanblog.sovereignsociety.com/2009/08/tax-terrorism-fear----official-irs-policies-1.html |
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