From the December 2000 Idaho Observer:

Income tax resistence getting national coverage

“A fringe element is taunting the IRS and so far little has been done about it,” wrote the NY Times

NEW YORK -- An article published in the New York Times Nov. 19, 2000, listed several companies that refuse to withhold taxes from its employees and accurately framed the arguments being advanced by activists who believe the income tax is illegal.

The article, while not exactly promoting the concept that the income tax is illegal, did show that many Americans are openly defying the IRS -- and the tax collection agency cannot seem to stop them.

There are several dynamics involved that seem to be responsible for the federal government's inability to continue taxing the wages of its people: 1) the IRS is understaffed and has been overwhelmed with the tidal wave of people who have decided to stop paying taxes; 2) The federal government can no longer ignore the legal foundation of the arguments upon which tax protestors base their claims.

According to the New York Times, IRS property seizures are down from an average of 10,000 per year throughout the 90s to just 156 so far this year.

Congress has been reducing the resources available to the IRS and in 1998 it passed the IRS Reform and Restructuring Act which made it more difficult for the IRS to persecute citizens.

The result has been a change in the landscape of national income tax resistance. No longer are only individuals bucking the system but companies are also dropping out of the tax system.

IRS Commissioner Charles Rosetti has warned Congress that unless his agency is provided with more resources to apprehend non-filers, the future of the entire scam of federal income taxation is in the balance.

The New York Times Article mentioned Irwin Schiff as a man who, “...for three decades [has been] a promoter of the idea that the tax is a hoax...”

It also mentioned former IRS Special Agent Joe Bannister and activist Devvy Kidd who believe that the IRS “is a criminal operation.”

Bannister quit his $80,000 per year job with the IRS after asking his superiors to prove that tax protestors such as Schiff, Kidd and Bill Benson were wrong -- and they wouldn't (or couldn't).

What will the federal government do if the people find out its income tax is indeed a hoax? What will it do if people begin to demand the labor it has stolen from them be returned?

It would appear that those questions may be answered in the near future.