Tax Protester History in The United States - Old Arguments and New

Old Arguments and New

Since the advent of the tax protester movement, all the arguments that have been raised in actual court proceedings have ultimately been deemed incorrect by the courts. Many tax protesters have taken these setbacks to mean that the courts, the Congress, and the executive branch are conspiring to continue receiving the revenue which pays their salaries and supports their benefits.

Within the tax protester movement, there has been discord as to which arguments are appropriate to bring, based in part on the belief that different courts will respond differently to certain arguments. Attorney Larry Becraft, who has spent much of his career defending tax protesters, has recently decried "innocents who today believe certain legal arguments popular years ago, but which were litigated by ill prepared, desperate people and lost. To continue going down such dead end roads and to follow these dead arguments will only result in disaster".

Furthermore, in addition to those who express heartfelt beliefs about the tax laws, some con artists have been known to take advantage of the beliefs of tax protesters by profitably engaging in "tax scams". Such scams have included "the marketing of bogus trusts, 'untax' kits or other devices that would ostensibly allow people to avoid paying income taxes".