We are fast approaching Tax Day, April 15th. On this infamous day each year, every United States citizen and resident, whose gross income exceeds a threshold amount is required to file their individual income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service (our version of the Gestapo), pay any taxes that still may be due, or, at the very least, request an extension of time to file Form 1040.
If you have not yet filed your tax return, you may want to consider going to our website and reading the March 10, 2025, Blog, which includes Tax Day Recommendations.
Unbeknownst to the average person, including most attorneys and accountants, when we file our tax returns and disclose the preponderance of information required, which keeps growing each, and every year, we are waiving our right to be secure in our papers and effects (4th Amendment) and our right not to be compelled to be a witness against ourselves (5th Amendment). And, to add insult-to-injury, we must sign the return under penalties of perjury, i.e., if we make a mistake or interpret the tax law differently than the IRS, we could end up in prison for 5-years. If that mistake or misinterpretation is substantial, say a 25% understatement of tax, not to mention unconscionable financial penalties under the tax code, the IRS could go after you for money laundering.
With the passage of the money laundering statutes, as part of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, tax evasion or tax fraud is considered money laundering. The maximum punishment is $500,000 or twice the amount of money laundered, whichever is greater, and up to 20 years in prison for each count. For example, if you wrote five checks in a single year, or over several years (e.g., IRS could audit 3-to-7 years), you could be facing a penalty of $2,500,000 and 100 years in prison (18 USC § 1957).
Real criminals (e.g., those that commit assault & battery, robbery, and even murder) are often subject to less harsh punishment than taxpayers who use aggressive tax-saving strategies to protect their property, contrary to the IRS position. Real criminals receive a Miranda warning explaining their rights. We (taxpayers) are not explained our rights and are purposely lied to.
The Tax Laws are complicated, convoluted, and subject to a myriad of interpretations. During what some may believe are ancient times (1970s and 1980s)—which seems like yesterday to me— Money Magazine published an edition each year giving 21 Tax Professionals (e.g., CPAs) a hypothetical taxpayer with the same tax information and asked them to prepare a tax return and submit it back to the magazine. As I remember, for each year for at least a decade, the magazine received 21 different computations of tax liability, i.e., no two Tax Professionals, not to mention the other 19, came up with the same tax liability EVER. The tax laws are not black and white, they are grey and purposely subject to manipulation.
The problem we face today was explained by John Whitehead in his book Battlefield America:
“Thanks to an overabundance of 4,500-plus federal crimes and 400,000-plus rules and regulations, it is estimated that the average American actually commits three felonies a day without knowing it. In fact, according to law professor John Baker, ‘There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime.’ That is not an exaggeration.”
The politicians, Deep State bureaucrats, academia, and the mainstream media talk about “the rule of law” but it is non-existent. The Rule of Law began to decline in 1937 and significantly accelerated in 2009 under then President Barrack Hussein Obama. We had a bit of a reprieve during President Trump’s first term. Then the COVID debacle hit, and the Biden-Harris Administration obliterated any semblance of “the rule of law” and, rather than citizens, we were becoming indentured subjects of the Biden-Harris regime. Get on the wrong side of the power-elites in the Biden-Harris Administration, and they would find some law, including the tax code, to destroy you. Look at what they tried to do to President Trump. Several of his loyal supporters were bankrupted and served time in prison. President Trump wants to stop this unconstitutional use of government power against American citizens. Trump wants to get rid of the IRS and replace the federal income tax with tariffs.
The Founders of this country never anticipated an individual income tax; they thought it to be a slave tax. The taxes assessed while the Founders were still alive were primarily taxes on consumption and imports or tariffs. Not only was an income tax deemed a slave tax, but the Constitution also made it almost impossible to administer because it was a Direct Tax subject to apportionment. In addition, and more importantly, the Government would have to rely on the honesty of all citizens to pay the proper amount of tax since an audit by Government (the IRS did not exist while the Founders were alive) would be unconstitutional under the 4th and 5th Amendments.
The U.S. individual income tax, as administered today, is unconstitutional. If you are uncertain, please read The Case for Trump’s Tariffs and the Elimination of the Federal Income Tax; it is available at www.JeffersonianGroup.com, or directly from Amazon.com. Please encourage family members, friends, neighbors, and associates to read and distribute copies of this book. Also, go to our website and sign our petition, Abolish IRS — Jeffersonian Group | Financial Planning & independence. Until then, file your tax returns and pay your taxes… it is extremely costly and difficult to “fight city hall” unless you are a billionaire! Trump fought City Hall and survived because he could afford an army of attorneys; other multi-millionaires, for example Paul Manafort and Rudy Giuliani, did not.
To restore the experiment in individual freedom— the recognition of unalienable Rights— started by our founders, we must support President Trump in his fight to reduce taxes & regulations, shrink the size of government, get rid of waste, fraud & abuse, and destroy the Deep State, making America Great once Again!
Dum Spiro Spero—While I breathe, I hope.
Slàinte mhath,
Robert (Mike) G. Beard Jr., C.P.A., C.G.M.A., J.D., LL.M.