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The Blue Money Report
"The knowledge of an effect depends on and involves the knowledge of a cause."
~ Spinoza

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Today's Commentary: 08.15.03
Extensions, Refusals, and Denials
For a good many of you, the odds are in my favor that one of the six million who failed to pony up their taxes on April 15th are reading this now, August 15th brings the same dread. For whatever reason, be it complications, failure to gather the necessary paperwork in time or you were somehow prevented through a disability, or any of the innumerable reasons we might conjure, taxes need to be paid. For most of us, this is just a given, sort of like rent for the right to be part of this citizenry.

But for some select few, the question of taxes and right to ask the IRS why are at the heart of a silent protest. Vernice Kuglin is just that sort of person. Her recent acquittal for tax evasion, six counts in all, made the news and brought to light some intriguing paradoxes of taxes.

Ms. Kuglin wanted to know and wrote numerous letters asking the IRS to cite the law the required her to pay taxes in the first place. Those letters were immediately filed in the round file next to the closest desk. The IRS does not feel as though they need to respond to these types of queries. Without a response, she changed her withholding by filing a W-4 with her employer, Federal Express.

The charge of tax evasion was filed and her passport was taken. This effectively grounded the pilot. The tax honesty movement was quick to seize the opportunity of this well argued case. A statement issued by the Western District of Tennessee U.S. attorney's office suggested that this not the norm. The judge, also championed by the same group for refusing to force her to pay the bill, made his decision based on the fact that Americans should be able to question their government. But too often this is not the case.

Consider the cheery press conference held on the President's ranch on Wednesday. With his economic team at his side, Mr. Bush the lead rider of these economic horsemen of the apocalypse, he continued to find no reason for more tax cuts until he can see how wide ranging the damage might be.

His father, often tossed by the historic roadside inherited some major and politically unpopular problems, which cost him a second term. Mr. Reagan, the president he'd most like to be took his devastating tax cuts and gradually repaired the damage by raising taxes. Mr. Bush has no intentions of doing anything of the sort. The weight of his decisions while grounded in good faith has targeted the wrong constituency.

Should Americans pay taxes? Of course we should and the IRS website even suggests the mandatory nature of the exercise. But according to the Federal District Court in Memphis, we should be able to ask why without penalty. By the way, Ms. Kuglin is still obligated to pay her bill that is thought to be close to a quarter million dollars. Perhaps she can benefit from the Tax Relief Act of 2003.