Scam Watch
The pitch: Income taxes are illegal!
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The scam: No one likes to pay taxes, but there are people who take it a step further by contending that income taxes are illegal or completely voluntary. The claims are sometimes based on interpretations of the U.S. Constitution that maintain that the Internal Revenue Service is not a true agency, tax forms do not display proper government control numbers and the word “voluntary” is used in 1040 form instructions. Courts have struck down these contentions, but they live on.
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The charges: Last week the Justice Department filed civil injunction complaints in three federal courts against Pinnacle Quest International, a company that allegedly earned more than $50 million by selling bogus information on defying taxes, as well as other schemes. Seminars hosted by the company were held in resort hotels and on a cruise ship -- an event the court documents called “a smorgasbord of tax fraud at sea.” Pinnacle Quest issued a statement saying that “we have never advocated that anyone twist any law or evade any tax that he legally owes,” and that attorneys have “confirmed the legality of all that we have presented.”
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Info: The IRS has information on anti-tax schemes at www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=106498,00.html.
-- David Colker
