Close to 90% of those convicted by the IRS "VOLUNTARILY" filed a tax returnBy Peymon MottahedehIn 2016, the IRS continued its historic pattern of criminally convicting far more people who had filed Income Tax Returns of “tax crimes,” than those who did not file. This is according to the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CID) website at: https://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigation/statistical-data-for-three-fiscal-years-criminal-investigation-ci. In 2016, the IRS convicted 2672 people of “tax crimes.” However, this is a 16% drop from 3,110 convictions in 2014.Please note another important statistic on another page of the IRS-CID website: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Statistical-Data-Nonfiler-Investigations, which states that in 2016 the IRS sentenced only 159 people who had not filed Income Tax Returns. This is down from 192 for the year 2014. In short, the IRS victimized less filers and non-filers in 2016 than in 2014.However, the IRS has remained faithful to its historic pattern of convicting and imprisoning 8 times more people who"voluntarily" filed Income Tax Confession Forms (misnamed by the Government as “Returns”) than those who did not. For as long as IRS data has been available, for every one non-filer the IRS convicted, eight filers were convicted of “tax crimes.”What makes this situation even worse for filers is that under the IRS Code Section 7201, Tax Return Filers face a five year felony prison sentence for “tax evasion.” However, under IRS Code Section 7203, a non-filer faces only a maximum of one-year misdemeanor prison sentence for "willful failure to file."

All of these filers gave the IRS the rope it needed to hang them by signing under oath that their Income Tax Returns were “true, correct, and complete.”

When the IRS comes after its target, it usually goes after him or her for three to five years of doing or not doing the same act. The IRS does this to show an “intentional pattern” of behavior to the jury rather than an unintentional mistake. This means that a non-filer, who the IRS is after for four years of not filing, at worst, faces a four-year prison sentence. However, the filer faces a 20-year prison sentence, for the same four years! More than he would for physical rape of a woman in most states!In addition, the IRS has been losing high profile cases of non-filers who have been acquitted by juries. On August 11, 2003, Memphis, Tennessee, a Fed-Ex Pilot named Vernie Kuglin, who spoke at Freedom Law School's 2004 Health and Freedom Rally, dealt a crushing blow to the IRS when the jury acquitted her of non-filing charges, despite the fact that she earned well over $100,000 per year.Another example of IRS losing a high profile non-filer tax case is that of the acquittal of the Louisiana Constitutional anti-IRS attorney Tom Cryer, who the jury on July 31, 2007 found NOT GUILTY of all non-filing charges. To learn more about his victory, go to Mr. Cryer's website www.truth-attack.com.What makes it especially difficult for filers to win a criminal tax case, is the fact that filers swear at the bottom of their 1040 Income Tax Confession Forms, under oath, that everything on their tax 1040 Confession Form is “true, correct, and complete.” During a criminal tax trial, the IRS dramatically blows up the 1040 Confession Form of the filer before the jury; thereby, easily persuading the jury that the numbers the victim put on his or her 1040 Confession Form were not honest mistakes, but deliberate acts of cheating his fellow citizens & government.Most 1040 Income Tax Confession Form filers who are criminally charged throw in the towel. Even when they know they are innocent they plead guilty rather than face combined fifteen to thirty-year prison sentences in a case they are almost certain to lose.

According to the IRS, there were about 63 MILLION NON-FILERS IN 1996. In contrast, the number of Individual Income Tax Returns filed in 2002 was 130 million.

For decades, many groups and individuals have been speaking up about the fact that the act of filing a 1040 Income Tax Confession Form is a highly intrusive act of self-enslavement. This forced form of confession violates many of the natural and constitutionally protected rights of Americans. These people have repeatedly been met by a judiciary, who seems more concerned with protecting the revenue source of their government, rather than honoring their oath to protect the natural and constitutional rights of Americans against the government's abuse of power.

U.S. Senator Henry Bellmon in 1969 said, "In a recent conversation with an official of the IRS, I was amazed when he told me, 'If the taxpayers of this country ever discover that the IRS operates on 90% bluff, the entire system will collapse!!"

The “bluff” that Bellmon was speaking of is the fact that the IRS has very limited resources and cannot go after everyone. The IRS relies heavily on convincing individuals that filing a 1040 Income Tax Return is the “safest” thing to do. However, more individuals are researching the facts and have been joining the ranks of the non-filers. These new non-filers are far more likely to stay out of prison than those who continue to file 1040 Income Tax Confession Forms for the IRS to use against them.

Peymon Mottahedeh is an anti-Zionist Jewish Iranian-born American, founder and President of Freedom Law School. Freedom Law School's aim is to restore freedom and justice by educating Americans about the law and lawful procedures they need to use to defend and retain their natural and constitutionally protected rights.