Wesley Snipes and the Anti-Tax Movement...

I've been following this story tangentially for awhile now, but it appears Wesley Snipes is set to directly take on the IRS over the contention that there is no legal justification for Americans to pay income taxes on wages earned. The so-called "861 position," which was popularized in Aaaron Russo's filmAmerica: Freedom to Fascism,has been rejected by the courts in terms of invalidating the income tax, but in recent years tax resistors have been acquitted in criminal courts using this argument.

Although legal experts expect Snipes to be convicted, an acquittal could be devastating for the IRS.

“He will get more press and attention than any other victory by the tax deniers, and the growth in new members will be exponential..."

At one point, this case supposedly had reached a settlement. Although the NY Times speculates that Snipes is being motivated by an anti-government black supramecist sect, it's not entirely clear to me if Snipes' defense won't center around that he was the innocent victim of bad advice by tax professionals who ascribed to 861 and that his prosecution is racially motivated. Snipes has attempted a couple of times to get the trial moved to New York from Ocala, FL, asserting that he can't have a fair trial in the latter location.

Snipes legal team plans to bring Muhammad Ali,Spike Lee, Sylvester Stallone, and Woody Harrelson as witnesses.

My thoughts on the matter is that I would love to see Snipes get an aquittal, but if I were him, I think I would have taken the deal. The 861 argument has always seemed pretty flimsy to me.

I view the tax resistance movement's focus on the income tax and the "861 position" as absurd. Far more interesting to me was the case in Nevada where the company was paying its employees in gold and silver coins from the US Mint. The coins have a value marked on them, but are worth far more when sold as collector items, etc. The case was over if the employees paid a tax on the "official" marked value of the coins or the market value. According to the marked values, the employees were getting paid too little for the company to pay things like FICA. They still have an income tax from the sale of the items, but were being taxed far less than they otherwise would have been.