Some bits and pieces from here and there:
- Vickie Aldrich gives us an update on her “frivolous filing” struggle with the IRS. Aldrich accompanied her income tax returns with a letter indicating that for reasons of conscience she would not be paying the complete amount due. The IRS interpreted this as her taking a frivolous legal position and fined her ($5,000 I think) for doing so. She got the help of some law school volunteers, but seemed unable to convince anyone that she wasn’t making a legal argument at all, but merely a statement of her moral priorities. The two sides seem to have come to an agreement, in which the main sticking point for the IRS seems to have been that they wanted Aldrich to stop sending them any such letters, whether she pays her tax or not.
- Some of a 600-person-strong group of British “constitutionalist” tax protesters “stormed a courtroom and attempted to make a citizens’ arrest on a judge in support of a man challenging his council tax bill.”
- Another English couple has announced they will be refusing to pay their council tax until the government fixes a botched hazardous waste cleanup that contaminated their property.
- The IRS issues Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) to people who are required to file tax returns but who do not qualify for social security numbers. Apparently they give these out promiscuously and without much review, further encouraging the fraudulent tax refund farming industry.
- The latest “IRS building evacuated due to suspicious package” story.
