From the February 2000 Idaho Observer:

Former INS official faces sentencing for “willful failure to file”

by Don Harkins

Prematurely retired Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) Inspector Gary Phillips, 66, is awaiting a February 25, 2000, sentencing in U.S. District Court in Seattle for failure to file a federal income tax return. According to Phillips the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has spent the last 12 years and an estimated $200,000 to finally convict him of what is tantamount to a misdemeanor.

Phillips also claims that “willful failure to file” is not a violation of IRS code. “The IRS had to borrow regulation 26-7203 from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to prosecute me,” commented Phillips.

As a federal employee, Phillips received his paychecks with federal taxes automatically deducted. He never once argued the deductions, he simply stopped filing a 1040 form in 1992. Phillips informed the IRS that he would no longer file 1040 forms with the explanation that to continue filing tax returns after finding out the federal income tax is fraudulent and illegal would be unethical. Phillips told the IRS that to continue participating in this fraud would place him in violation of his oath of allegiance as a civil servant.

By 1995 Phillips, forced to retire after 41 years as a federal employee, was a GS-13 with two GS-12 supervisors who reported directly to him. His Port of Seattle office had several technical officers and about 30 inspectors. Phillips was highly respected in immigration and fraud-detection circles and was frequently commissioned to teach security and fraud detection techniques at other INS outposts throughout the country.

Without warning and at the height of his career, Janet Reno's Justice Department pulled Phillips' security clearance because he was questioning the legality of the income tax and allegedly owed the IRS money. The move terminated his employment because he must have a security clearance to perform his duties as an INS inspector.

“It is a criminal act to participate in a fraud. All that I am guilty of is adhering to my oath of allegiance,” said Phillips who swore an oath to protect his country from “all enemies, both foreign and domestic.”

Phillips' IRS odyssey began in 1983 when the agency decided to audit him over some investments that, according to Phillips and his accountant, were allowable under the law at that time and are still allowable today. Because he challenged the IRS' authority to make up tax laws as it sees fit, Phillips was branded as a tax protester by federal tax collectors. “I have always paid the income tax required of me. However, when the IRS harrassingly began to move against my property and wages based upon what turned out to be the fiction that I owed them money from my investments, I decided to make a study of the IRS code,” explained Phillips.

It was the arrogant and high-handed manner of IRS agents that prompted Phillips to study the income tax. As a ranking immigration official, Phillips is well versed in the science of intimidation and coercion and, therefore, recognized the tactics being used to compel his cooperation with federal authority.

“By chance I was introduced to the book “The Law That Never Was” by Bill Benson. The book reflected the author's exhaustive research into the ratification of the 16th Amendment which gave us the income tax and, as a consequence, the IRS. The evidence proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was never legally ratified,” said Phillips.

Upon learning of this information, Phillips made repeated attempts to have the justice department look into the matter. In an eloquent October 31, 1993 letter to Attorney General Reno, Phillips stated his position, questioned the ratification of the 16th Amendment and then lectured the nation's highest ranking law enforcement official as to the significance of a government employee's oath of office. Phillips told Reno that, “When I took my oath of office and allegiance about 44 years ago, I had no idea what the future held for me. I can assure you that I did not think that I would be in the position of supporting and defending the Constitution against a very domestic enemy...Those who take the oath do not have a real choice in the situation. They have sworn their unquestioning allegiance to the Constitution and therefore must perform their duty or they are traitors. It is that simple.”

In the letter to Reno, Phillips also mentioned that every federal judge and every member of the U.S. Congress has been provided evidence that the 16th Amendment is a fraud that has been perpetrated upon the American people. “At his own expense, the author of the volume sent copies of 'The Law That Never Was' to 1158 federal judges across the nation plus a name-embossed copy to every federal legislator in the federal government, every United States attorney, all of the cabinet members and the president of the United States.”

Phillips has repeatedly written to Reno, the IRS and state and federal congresspersons, the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the FBI, the president and several federal judges in search of answers to specific questions regarding the 16th Amendment. Phillips has also asked about the “voluntary” nature of the tax and for proof that the income tax, as levied by the IRS, is a constitutional tax. “Every one of my letters have either been ignored or the responses to them effectively sidestepped the direct nature of my questions,” Phillips said.

Phillips is a landmark case for several reasons: He was a career federal employee with an exemplary work history that propelled him upward through the ranks to a supervisory position of tremendous importance to national security; he has never been a tax protester in that he has always paid the taxes required of him and; he is not being sentenced because he owes the IRS any money.

After 16 years' involvement with the IRS, after 16 years' research into IRS code and the history of the income tax and after writing eloquent, intelligent and appropriate questions to every possible official who should provide him with honest answers, Phillips has been convicted for simply failing to file a form.

IO readers: You are having an impact. When we publish the contact information of people who are participating in activities that are systematically destroying our nation, you are responding. When we as concerned citizens call en masse, “they” know that America is watching. We have evidence to suggest that your voices are altering the outcome of planned events. Gary Phillips, who has spent the last 16 years selflessly seeking answers that would benefit us all, is about to be sentenced to serve time for simply failing to file a form even though the “authorities” refused to tell him why he has to file it. Please take the time to call one or all of the people above and tell them that you, too, want answers to some very basic questions, such as: “Was the 16th Amendment ever actually ratified and is the income tax legal?”

Then let's see what happens to this dedicated American February 25.

Judge John Coughenauer: (206) 553-4421

Judge Barbara Rothstein: (206) 553-2740

Magistrate David Wilson (judge who, through his jury instructions obtained Phillips' conviction): (206) 553-4463

Magistrate Ricardo Martinez: (206) 553-1396

Magistrate John Weinberg: (206) 553-5774

U.S. Attorney Arlen Storm: (206) 593-6316

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Warma: (206) 553-7970

IRS Special Agent Robert Manning: (possibly in hiding)

Senator William Roth (R-Del.): (202) 224-2441

U.S. Senator Slade Gorton (R-Wash.): (425) 451-0103 or (202) 224-3441

Jim McDermott (D-Wash.): (206) 553-7170 or (202) 225-3106