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IOWA WILL HAVE FOUR TEAMS IN THE 'FINAL FOUR' BEFORE THIS WORKS

March 07, 2007

I hope Arthur Farnsworth is getting affairs in order so he can go away for awhile. He is to be sentenced today for tax evasion in Pennsylvania, and his strategy to avoid jail isn't promising:

A Bucks County man convicted of income tax evasion wants a federal judge to throw out his guilty verdict on the grounds that the U.S. attorney lacked ''territorial jurisdiction'' to prosecute him.

Arthur Farnsworth, who claimed during his trial that payment of federal income taxes is voluntary, also sought a stay of his sentencing, scheduled for today, pending a resolution of his motion to dismiss the verdict, which was filed late Monday.

His co-counsel seems unlikely to score points with his arguments:

Farnsworth's co-counsel, Jonathan Altman of Paoli, Chester County, said the argument of territorial jurisdiction is rooted in law, and if the motion to dismiss is denied, an appeal would go to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and possibly the U.S. Supreme Court.

''Many people contend it's a frivolous argument, in particular the U.S. government, but my research has concluded otherwise,'' said Altman.

Tax protestors like to say they've done "extensive research" that proves that everything that the three branches of government say about the tax system is wrong. It never works, probably because the "research" really consists of reading books and tracts by other tax protestors and listening to their short-wave radio broadcasts.

In his motion to dismiss the guilty verdict, he asserts a narrowly held notion by tax honesty advocates that the U.S. government has limited jurisdiction in matters outside the District of Columbia.

Aside from exercising authority over ''erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards and other useful buildings,'' jurisdiction over all criminal matters rests with the states, and federal prosecutors throughout the United States have usurped their authority under the U.S. Constitution, Farnsworth claims.

Al Capone and John Gotti will be pleased to get that news.

''States, not the federal government, in most circumstances, can prosecute unless there is a constitutional amendment to change that,'' he said. ''This is an issue that, in my opinion, has gone unchallenged. Mr. Farnsworth tried to say this during his trial, but he didn't articulate it properly.'

Showing once again the tax protest honesty movement's touching faith that somewhere, somehow, there is a magic chant that can be used in a courtroom to drive away the evil spirits of the tax law.

Anybody wanting an encyclopedic debunking of tax protest theories should visit Dan Evans' Tax Protester FAQ page.

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