Oregon Man Refuses to Pay Taxes Because of Abortion -- He Beat the Feds!

Here's something in the news from about two weeks ago.

I think more pro-American conservatives should follow this pathway, this process.

Why should we continue to pay taxes to a federal or to state governments which are routinely undermining our rights and refusing to honor their oaths of office to protect the citizenry who pay their taxes?

He refuses to pay taxes because heopposes abortions. He just beat the feds in court

Michael Bowman, a 53-year-old self-employed computer software developer from Columbia City, Oregon, hasn’t paid his federal income taxes since 1999.

He says it’s because his Christian ideals don’t allow him to pay into a system that funds abortions. In a YouTube video explainer [SIC, how about "explanation"?] of his defense, he likened paying taxes that then go toward funding abortions to German citizens under Nazi rule who outed Jewish citizens, sending them to their deaths.

I have heard this argument from others. This is a just form of social protest against the government. Henry David Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax because of his opposition to the Mexican-American war. Californians should stop paying taxes, too, since their tax dollars go to illegal aliens, special interests, and public sector unions, all of which are more interested in stealing from us and enriching themselves. And the public sector workers are not even serving the public!

And according to The Associated Press, he beat the feds in court this week.

To be clear, Bowman won the battle, not the war he’s fighting with the IRS and the Oregon U.S. District Court, when federal Judge Michael W. Mosman dismissed a felony tax evasion charge against Bowman.

This passage proves the level of click-baiting which the media will engage in. How shameful is that? Still, Bowman won a court case against the federal government to hold onto his well-deserved tax dollars.

Mosman ruled that the government’s indictment failed to provide any evidence that Bowman tried to conceal money from or misled the IRS by cashing his paychecks instead of depositing them and keeping a low bank balance so tax collectors couldn’t garnish wages from it to pay what it says are back taxes owed.

“Not everything that makes collection efforts more difficult qualifies as evasion,” Mosman said Wednesday, according to the Oregonian.

More tax evasion needed, then? Or should all of us resort to having as little money as possible in our bank accounts? How many of us feel confident about leaving our money in our homes, locked in a safe or in a can under our beds? Not sure about this approach, but oh well.

According to Bowman’s federal indictment, the self-employed computer software developer owes back taxes on at least $800,000 of income and falsely claimed he was owed several refunds. The feds claim he started using the religious argument for not paying his taxes only after his “’Claim of Right’ tax avoidance scheme failed.”

The taxes and penalties due associated with that income is $356,857.

That indictment came down in February 2017, and Mosman dismissed it without prejudice Wednesday, which means the prosecutors could seek a new indictment to replace it. Bowman still faces four misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file tax returns.

Uh-Oh!

Bowman allegedly also left voicemail messages for the IRS revenue officer assigned to his case in 2013, where he stated that he refused to pay his taxes. He says he’s been up front with authorities all along.

At least he was honest about not wanting to pay his taxes, and why he doesn't want to pay.

When the Oregon Department of Revenue began taking money from Bowman’s bank account in 2012, Bowman began cashing his work checks instead of depositing them, leaving a minimal balance in his account through at least September 2014, according to the Oregonian.

Yes, I guess this is the process which we conscientious-minded activists may have to follow. Someone should forward this to as many people as possible. Perhaps Milton Friedman's dream of "Starving the Beast" can still come true.

“Defendant’s altered bank behavior removed his income from the reach of taxing authorities and allowed him to avoid payment of assessed taxes,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Donna Brecker Maddux and Rachel K. Sowray wrote in their defense of the felony tax evasion charge.

But Bowman’s lawyer argued that simply cashing checks in his own name did not constitute tax evasion. Mosman agreed.

Of course it does not count as tax evasion! Lots of people cash their checks and take the money to purchase goods are engage in other forms of trade. Civil asset forfeiture has turned into a manifold abuse in part because the feds target farmers--who do their deals in direct cash!

No one would dare call a farmer a tax dodger, would they?

I sure hope not!

Bowman’s defense in the larger scope of his refusal to pay taxes comes from a 1993 law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits government from substantially burdening a person’s religious exercise unless the government demonstrates a compelling government interest and does so through the least restrictive means.

Good argument. Let's build on it!

In April of 2017, though, President Donald Trump signed a law that prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, except in cases of rape or to save a woman’s life. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that for the years 2014 and 2015, $450 million in government funding was distributed to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions as well as education, contraception and other forms of reproductive care.

I am glad that more people are fighting for life and taking a stand against the federal government's abuse and misuse of taxpayer dollars.