April 15th is fast-approaching. The first two things you can do to avoid, or at least minimize, an IRS Audit is (1) extend your tax return, filing it as late as possible on October 15, 2024, and (2) file a paper return. The IRS schedules audits a year in advance, so returns extended and filed later receive less scrutiny. In addition, by filing a paper return, it sits on someone’s desk before it is inputted into the archaic computer system—this may change soon when they can scan paper tax returns—which means your tax return may be given an even lower priority.
When you prepare your return, make sure you include all required forms, you report ALL income as reported to you on your Form W-2s and Form 1099s, etc. In addition, DO NOT use round numbers, e.g., $2,000 looks suspicious but $1,994 looks like a real expense! Even if your expense is $2,000, it is better to round it down, not up, to avoid a red flag. For more information, including business and partnership returns, read How To Prepare for, Control, and Successfully Survive an IRS Audit.
The real cause of the American Revolution can be traced back to the reason immigrants came to America—they sought freedom from taxation as expressed by one Irishman writing back home to Ulster in 1720: “Tell all the poor folk of ye place that God has opened a door for their deliverance . . . all that a man works for is his own, and there are no revenue hounds [i.e. no IRS] to take it from us here; there is no one to take away yer Corn, yer Potatoes.”
In addition to understanding the plight of immigrants coming to the American colonies, our Founders were tax evaders and rebels themselves, who read baron de Montesquieu’s book, The Spirit of Laws, published in English in 1751, in which he set forth his basic principles of taxation: Direct taxes (e.g., tax on the wages of labor) were dangerous and natural to slavery; indirect taxes or taxes on the sale of merchandise were more natural to liberty.
Because of this belief that an income tax on a person’s labor was tantamount to slavery, there was no peacetime income tax for the first 118 years of our existence; and there was never any income tax leveled while our Founders were still alive.
After the 16th Amendment was passed in 1913, the doors were opened-wide for Congress to begin the enslavement of the American people. The power-elites who control government—with the assistance of academia, the major media, and a Supreme Court who has abandoned its responsibility—have perpetrated a fraud against the American people.
Four Supreme Court cases that were decided between 1886 and 1916 have been either (1) ignored, (2) misquoted, (3) misinterpreted, or (4) criticized without any rational basis that comports with the true meaning of the Constitution.
Even though Congress has the right to impose taxes, it must be done constitutionally. The administration and collection of the individual federal income tax is a violation of our “right to be let alone,”[1] our Fourth Amendment right to be secure in our papers and effects, and our Fifth Amendment right not to be a witness against ourselves.
In addition, Article I, Section 9 states, “No capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” Wages and self-employment income are a “capitation” and “other direct” tax, and since it is NOT apportioned, it is unconstitutional.[2]
Please go to our website, www.jeffersoniangroup.com, and sign our Petition to Abolish the IRS. Also, read our book, The U.S. Individual Income Tax is Incompatible with a Free Society, available through our website or directly from Amazon.com.
If enough people understand the fraud perpetrated against them, we may be able to abolish the IRS. Until then, make sure you continue to prepare and timely file your tax returns… the IRS and the U.S. government have unlimited funds, we do not.
Dum Spiro Spero—While I breathe, I hope.
Slainte mhath,
Robert (Mike) G. Beard Jr., C.P.A., C.G.M.A., J.D., LL.M.
[1] Justice Brandeis, Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438 (1929) at 479.
[2] Robert G. Beard, Jr., The U.S. Individual Income Tax is Incompatible with a Free Society, 26-28, (2013)