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THIS MAN NEEDS TO GET OUT MORE

January 18, 2007

A New Hampshire man on trial for tax evasion has barricaded himself in his home. If this report from the Boston Globe is any indication, he may be taking more trouble than it's worth:

PLAINFIELD, N.H. --Ed Brown, with a handgun tucked in his pants and home prepared for a raid, hunkered down in his cement-walled home and waited for the U.S. marshals to descend.

The law never came.

Brown, on trial with his wife for not paying federal income taxes since 1996, faces charges of conspiring to evade taxes, conspiring to disguise large financial transactions and disguising large transactions. He said there is no law that requires federal income taxes.

He should have called me a long time ago. I could have saved him some trouble:

"Show me the law and I'll pay the taxes," said Ed Brown, who met with reporters standing in his driveway Wednesday.

Ed, if you're reading this, follow along closely:

U.S. Code Title 26, Section 1, has the useful name "Tax Imposed." It begins:

(a) Married individuals filing joint returns and
 surviving spouses

    There is hereby imposed on the taxable income of--

        (1) every married individual (as defined in 

        section 7703) who makes a single return 

        jointly with his spouse under section 6013, 

    

   and

   

        (2) every surviving spouse (as defined in 

        section 2(a)),

a tax determined in accordance with the following 

table:

Section 1 goes on to list the taxes and rates on single individuals, heads of households, and estates and trusts, as well.

"Taxable Income" is defined in Section 63 of Title 26. Other sections of Title 26 will give you helpful definitions like "gross income." And Section 6012 provides a useful listing those required to file tax returns.

Mr. Brown, now that you've been shown the law that requires you to pay taxes, I'm sure you can work out something with the government. And good luck with the standoff thing.

More here.

UPDATE: Guilty on all counts.

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