IRS Raids Author Who Says She Never Pays Taxes

The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the business practices of Lynne Meredith, a Sunset Beach author who has built a career on her boasts of never paying taxes.

As part of a nine-month investigation, federal agents seized receipts, business records and a dozen computers from Meredith’s office last Friday.

The investigation seeks to determine whether Meredith defrauded the U.S. government, interfered with tax laws or filed false tax returns from 1993 through 1997, according to an IRS affidavit filed in U.S. District Court. No charges or arrests have been made.

Although Meredith freely admits she has never paid income tax “because I have no taxable income,” she said the IRS mistook her for another California woman who allegedly filed false returns.

“I’m not doing anything illegal, and if I did I wouldn’t have a 6,000-square-foot office on Pacific Coast Highway advertising my firm, We the People,” Meredith said.

“I don’t try to hide what I do. I’ve never even gotten a phone call from the IRS before,” she said. “But they are trying to shut me up because I’ve got powerful information, and they’re trying to put me out of business.”

Meredith says she has sold more than 120,000 copies of her books--”Vultures in Eagle’s Clothing” and “How to Cook a Vulture”--describing how to earn income without paying taxes. She also has appeared on talk shows, has conducted seminars nationwide and drives a Corvette bearing “TAXREBEL” plates.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, confirmed that IRS agents executed a search warrant, but declined comment on the nature of the investigation. An IRS spokeswoman in Laguna Niguel also would not comment.

The investigation, which began in November, found that Meredith has run businesses under several names. In doing so, her full income--from seminars, books and trust packages--may not have been reported, according to the affidavit.

For example, Meredith apparently failed to report $4 million in book sales and $7,710 in income from two days of seminars, Oct. 24-25, in Oregon, according to the documents. “Nowhere have any of these funds been accounted for or reported to the IRS on Meredith’s returns,” the documents said.

Through her book “Vultures in Eagle’s Clothing,” documents said, Meredith encouraged people to fill out an affidavit claiming they are not subject to income taxes and are not required to file a tax return.

She allegedly advised people to send the form by certified mail to the IRS and told them that if the agency did not respond within 30 days, the person is no longer subject to federal income taxes. The IRS said this may be a tax code violation.

Meredith denied any wrongdoing. “The person on the affidavit is not me,” she said.

She said 40 agents crashed through the door of her office/home in Sunset Beach and a home in Huntington Beach holding guns. She also said the agents entered without signed search warrants.

“These agents had no jurisdiction under law to do what they did. This should never happen to another person in America,” said Meredith, who plans to file a lawsuit against the IRS.