By Julie Foster
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

A man who believes the majority of Americans are not required by law to pay income taxes will begin a hunger strike in an attempt to force government officials to prove him wrong.

Bob Shulz, chairman of the We the People Foundation for Constitutional Education, announced yesterday he would begin abstaining from food on July 1, until he is told which government officials will meet with him and other protesters on Sept. 18, to discuss their legal theories.

"This comes as a result of the government's continued evasion of opportunities the foundation and others have provided to the government over the past two years to discuss the allegations of fraud and illegal operations of the income-tax system," said Schulz.

He and other members of the loosely tied and self-described "tax-honesty movement" believe the 16th Amendment was fraudulently ratified. The amendment made income taxes constitutional, and because of its improper implementation, says Schulz, Americans have been duped into believing a lie - that they are required to pay income taxes.

Additionally, tax-honesty movement adherents - most commonly known and referred to as "tax protesters" - believe the tax code is intentionally complex to mask its lack of authority. The code never actually states citizens are required to pay an income tax, tax protesters claim.

WorldNetDaily's April edition of its print magazine, WorldNet, included an extensive investigative report on tax-protester arguments, including those claims made by Schulz.

Another major argument by tax protesters is the allegation that tax filers waive their Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination by voluntarily filing a return. Such activists also assert that the IRS routinely violates citizens' Fourth Amendment right against illegal search and seizure and ignores citizens' due process rights in administrative procedures.

In short, the IRS "operates far outside the law," said Schulz.

We the People Foundation has conducted four workshops wherein tax-protesters defend their allegation that most Americans are not required to pay income taxes, using self-conducted legal research. IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti and other government officials have repeatedly been invited to the workshops, held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., but to date, no government official has responded to the foundation's invitations. Schulz hopes his hunger strike will convince agents to attend the Sept. 18 meeting.

Tax protesters, led by Schulz's organization, also participated in a walk-around of the IRS building in Washington, waiting in vain for Rossotti or a representative to address the hundreds of frustrated citizens who want answers.

Schulz, 61, is desperate. He was unavailable for comment yesterday as he spent the day in Washington hand delivering letters to the offices of Rossotti and President Bush.

"Frankly, Mr. President, now that America's only national newspaper, USA TODAY, has refused to publish any more messages on the subject from this Foundation, I don't know what else to do to get the federal government to answer the legitimate and serious questions regarding the legal authority of the IRS to force employers to withhold the income tax from the paychecks of their employees and to force individuals to file tax returns and pay the income tax - questions that have been raised by a substantial and credible body of evidence gathered by federal and state tax agents, CPAs, attorneys, employers and other tax researchers," he wrote. "Everything else has been tried."

Hunger strikes are a well-known method of protest in contemporary times, but perhaps the most famous of the method's adherents was Mohandas Gandhi. His strategic hunger strikes, along with other forms of protest, eventually led to India's independence from Britain and earned him the Hindu title of "mahatma," meaning "great soul."

Another protest method is being attempted by IRS critic Donald Iiams of Ohio. Though not a tax protester, Iiams seeks to "totally put the IRS out of business, legally and peacefully, in a two-year period." According to Iiams, he was assessed for taxes he did not owe, since the IRS considered some of his subcontractors to be his employees. After a 13-year battle with the agency, he was given a $44.1 million repayment agreement by the IRS, which would be paid in 56 quarters, he wrote on his website.

"After receiving the first payment of $20,693, the IRS decided to renege on the repayment agreement. They told me that if I was going to continue to fight back, I could just sue them for my money," Iiams continued. "Instead of trying to sue them for the rest of my life in a court that they own, I decided to take my fight to the American people."

His goal is to bombard the Cincinnati IRS office with protest letters, which may be downloaded from his website. Letters contain Iiam's name and return address and not that of the sender. That way, participants can protest the actions of the IRS without fear of retaliation, he wrote. If participants generate enough letters, IRS agents "will be forced to go to President Bush and say we need a better tax system because the IRS will not be able to process anything except protest letters," wrote Iiams.

Schulz, whose battle with the IRS is over the agency's general legal authority rather than a quest for personal justice, sees his hunger strike as a last resort.

"What must a free people do," asks Schulz in his letter, "when faced with a government that has apparently stepped outside the boundary the people have drawn around its taxing power, will not justify its behavior, treats all people who raise questions about its legal authority as 'tax cheats,' (even if those people, such as myself … do pay their taxes in full and on time), enforces the Internal Revenue Code at gunpoint and throws citizens in jail, seizes homes, cars and bank accounts, even though those citizens have tried repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, to get answers from the IRS and their congressmen regarding the legality of the tax?"

Despite claims that the government has completely ignored the issues brought by tax protesters, such activists often ignore or dismiss relevant judicial rulings and state actions - or in this case, inaction. Courts have traditionally refrained from ruling on the legitimacy of the 16th Amendment's ratification, citing the explicit separation of powers outlined in the Constitution. Proper enactment of legislation and constitutional amendments is the job of the legislature, not the judicial system, many court opinions on the subject read. To date, no state has attempted to refute the amendment's ratification. Additionally, judges have also consistently ruled that the Fifth Amendment right is a protection that can be invoked only in criminal cases. To claim such a protection as the basis for not filing a tax return - except in rare cases - is to claim a protection that does not exist, courts have said.

The claim that employers are not required to withhold taxes from employee paychecks was most recently addressed by the IRS itself. Last week, the agency gave formal notice to tax lawyers and other professionals, saying the primary statutory argument cited in support of the position is baseless.

The claim that only income from foreign sources, or employers based abroad, is subject to American income taxes "is refuted by the express and unambiguous terms" of the tax code, the notice states. It also cites court decisions supporting the IRS's position, including a 1955 Supreme Court ruling holding that "Congress applied no limitations as to the source of taxable receipts" subject to income taxes.

Accordingly, the IRS has begun the process of collecting tax payments from Al Thompson, the best-known advocate of tax-protester employers' "861 argument" - so called because advocates of the position base their argument on Section 861 of the Internal Revenue Code. Thompson, the owner of Cencal Aviation in Lake Shasta, Calif., was featured in a November New York Times article identifying 23 businesses that have publicly declared they do not withhold taxes. IRS officials said they have begun to crack down on non-withholding business owners.

As for the tactics of the IRS in enforcement actions, numerous lawsuits are pending all across the country alleging undue force and privacy invasion on the part of agents. Congress held hearings several years ago during which severe abuses by IRS agents were exposed. The hearings led to a massive restructuring of the agency. Nevertheless, many taxpayers attest to the continuation of such abuses.

In the meantime, Schulz waits for a response to his demand that government officials attend the Sept. 18 meeting.

"I am not some wild-eyed radical," wrote Schulz. "I believe deeply in the principles upon which our constitutional republic was shaped and formed. And I do not take lightly the risks of losing the freedoms, rights and liberties that were purchased by the blood and sacrifices of so many before us."