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Attorney Tommy K. Cryer Challenges Income Tax Law
Constitutional History in the Making
Source:
http://edbrownextendedentries.blogspot.com/2007/02/attorney-challenges-income-tax-law.html
Feb.19, 2007
Longtime Shreveport , Louisiana , attorney, Tommy K. Cryer, is no stranger
to conflict and controversy. The Hall of Fame attorney, an honor graduate of
LSU Law School and member of the prestigious Order of the Coif, has a
reputation for taking on issues no one else would and, on a number of
occasions, he has made new inroads in the legal world. But now he has thrown
down the gauntlet in front of the mother of all 800 pound gorillas, the
Internal Revenue Service, and the mama gorilla has picked it up. The only
thing certain now is that someone is going to be hurt.
The story began over a decade ago when a friend told Cryer that the income
tax was a sham. Cryer did not believe a word of it and thought his friend
had gone off the deep end. Learning that his friend had decided to stop
filing tax returns, Cryer determined to research the matter, show his friend
where he was wrong, and keep him from getting in trouble with the IRS. That
is how a two-year research project began, but it did not turn out the way
Cryer expected. Sporting a wry grin, Cryer said "That just goes to show you
that no good deed goes unpunished." His research not only included the tax
laws themselves, but went past the first income tax in 1861 to the drafting
of the Constitution and included reading hundreds of cases, Congressional
archives and tax laws from 1913 to present. Cryer learned that although his
friend had only a piece of the picture, he was right. "The Tax Code and its
regulations are carefully and," he adds, "ingeniously crafted to deceive,"
said Cryer.
He explains that the answer is not in what the laws say, but rather in what
they do not say, and those provisions that are revealing are either hidden
within tons of verbiage or behind double and triple negatives. And, more
importantly, he says, he knows why.
So Cryer decided he would also stop filing returns and would challenge the
IRS if and when it came to call. Cryer said "Once you've taken an oath to
uphold the Constitution and the law, obeying the law is only half the job.
You also have to be willing to fight for it. I've not only sworn to fight
for the Constitution as an attorney, as a former officer in the Army I've
sworn to die for it." In 2001 they came, demanding information and returns.
Cryer advised them that if they could show him any law making him liable or
making his revenues taxable he would file any tax returns required by the
law. They could not show him any law. Instead, the IRS began to pelt Cryer
with a series of summonses, gathering up all banking records. It even
subpoenaed Cryer's secretary into the office for interrogation. But Cryer
did not budge.
Frustrated, the IRS called in their criminal investigations division, CID,
and Cryer told them the same thing, "Show me the law that makes me liable or
my revenue taxable and I will file."
They could not show him any law. CID began the summons pelting all over
again, but Cryer filed a petition to quash the summonses, which even
included summonsing his college and law school records from almost forty
years ago. "I suppose they thought the records would show I was some kind of
kook or an idiot, but all they would have found is that I graduated from
college in only three years and that I graduated from law school in the top
of my class."
Cryer said. So, CID called in the Justice Department (DOJ) and the sabers
began to rattle.
Cryer met with the Assistant U. S. Attorney and an official of the IRS and
reminded them that all they need do is show him the law. They could not show
him any law, either. "The CID and DOJ both responded only with 'your
position is frivolous.' I had never stated a position, so how could they
know whether it was frivolous?" Cryer said, "Imagine my sending you a bill
for $1,000 and when you call me and ask what the bill was for I simply said,
'that position is frivolous, just write the check and send it in.' What
would you say?
Would you write the check?" "After that they circled for awhile, apparently
not sure what to do with or to me," he continues, "but when I went public
with a book I'm writing, LIBERTY LOST, A Treasure Map to Buried Freedom/,
about how the federal government has escaped its constitutional
limits and how to put it back, that broke the impasse. Within two months
they accused me of tax evasion. Do I look like Al Capone? Well, I am a bit
overweight and he was kind of chubby, too."
The two count indictment accuses Cryer of concealing income in a trust in
2000 and 2001, keeping himself "below the radar." But in 2001 he was not
only on the radar, he was in the cross-hairs. Cryer, whose wife, Carolyn,
was severely disabled, was worried that if anything happened to him
Carolyn's son would have her destitute before the grass grew over his grave.
He set up the trust in 1993 and opened brokerage accounts in hopes of
parlaying the seed money he could muster up into a fund to provide for her
and safeguard the money. Carolyn died in 1999, but he continued to trade in
the accounts. "They subpoenaed every record on me you could imagine, they
even got into my dry cleaner's account, but they did not subpoena the
brokerage account records. They did not want the facts, just an indictment.
If they had they would have known that the trust not only had no income for
those two years, it lost money both years, but they did not want to know the
truth because that would prevent them from accusing me. " he said. Cryer
says that it has already been an eye-opening experience for him, "It's been
revealing.
I've had agents tell me the law did not apply to them, so I suppose they
think they are above the law. Another, challenged with having failed to
follow IRS procedures explained that the procedures are binding on us (the
peasants?), but that the IRS does not have to follow its own procedures
unless it wants to. After effecting a legal stay on the CID summonses, a CID
investigator called the banks he had summonsed and when they pointed out
that they were stayed and not allowed to release records until the court
ruled, he demanded they send him the records anyway, law or no law.
After I made full disclosure of all records, saying show me where any of
this is taxed, they sent agents out to 'visit' with my clients, and you can
imagine what effect that has had on my practice.
But the ride is going to get a lot bumpier from here on. I'm threatening a
lot of rice bowls. Someone may actually have to go get a job and work like
the rest of us." Well, now the worm has turned. Cryer filed a motion to
dismiss both counts against him, showing that the law, as it is written,
does not make him liable nor tax his revenue from his law practice.
The motion takes another bold step, however, revealing that the income tax,
as applied to wages, salaries and fees personally earned, is
unconstitutional, citing four separate grounds for the unconstitutionality
of the law as to almost every citizen's revenue personally earned.
According to Cryer, the law, which is carefully drawn to stay inside the
Constitution, does not actually tax personal earnings, but the IRS
publications, no more law than Time Magazine, say it does and by collecting
taxes on personal earnings it has violated several
fundamental constitutional restrictions. He says that nearly a trillion
dollars is siphoned, illegally, away from families and households every
year, although their wages and salaries, including bonuses, are exempt from
taxation under the Constitution. "I wish there were some way I could have
taken this case on a 1/3 contingency," he joked.
Due to the adverse publicity and clients' fear of being targeted if they get
too close to a target, Cryer says his practice has suffered immensely,
placing him in a severe financial strain. "Getting the government off
everyone's back and out of their pockets is going to be expensive and,
frankly, I don't have the means," Cryer said, "but somehow I am going to
finish this. I am totally convinced that this is why I am here on this
Earth, this is why I am a lawyer, and since it's meant to be, it will be."
CALL TO ARMS!
WE ALL NEED TO HELP THIS MAN WIN FOR US
This man has devoted his life and practice to helping people. He left the
big firm road over thirty years ago and opened a storefront solo practice
because he did not become a lawyer to run up billable hours and stack up
money. He wanted to solve people's problems and make
the system work as it was intended. He is not a fat cat lawyer and deals
with the same problems we all do every day. Now, he's put his freedom and
future on the line for all of us.
The government has destroyed Tom Cryer's practice in order to impede his
ability to fight this battle and he needs your help. If you are tired of
being afraid of your own government and can help, please send whatever you
can to the Tom Cryer Defense Fund and then forward this message to
everyone you know.
Make checks payable to "C. L. Mitchell" with "Cryer Defense" on the memo
line and mail to:
C. L. Mitchell
Cryer Defense Fund
11190 General Bradley Ave.
Shreveport, LA 71106
(ask for a free copy of the 104 page memorandum Mr. Cryer filed explaining
the law and the reasons the Constitution makes your paycheck exempt, include
your email)
Contributors will NOT be disclosed to ANYONE, especially the government.
This is not a political campaign, so there are no reporting requirements.
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