Fraud Friday: “Illegal tax protestors”


Tax protestors rely on various arguments, such as the Sixteenth Amendment not being properly ratified, income is not defined in the Internal Revenue Code or the Constitution, or that the Internal Revenue Code actually doesn’t require anyone to pay tax. Prior to 1998, the IRS would label such individuals as “illegal tax protestors” in their system to flag them for enforcement actions and alert IRS employees to be cautious in dealing with them. But in 1998, Congress passed the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-206) prohibiting the IRS from continuing this practice because it stigmatized these individuals and biased IRS employees against them, even if they had ultimately paid their tax.

(www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2014/09/11/what-is-an-illegal-tax-protester-and-why-cant-the-irs-use-that-term-any-more/)

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