My faithful readers know that I have an eccentric interest in tax protestors, those people who cling to crazy theories about why American's aren't legally required to pay income tax. Because criminal tax prosecutions require the government to prove that the defendant believed he had to pay income tax, every now and then a protestor does manage to get acquitted -- oddly enough, the more you can convince the jury that you really believe crazy tax protestor theories, the better off you are.
Well, the jury must have thought that Sherry Peel Jackson, CPA, ex-IRS agent and notorious tax protestor, whose crazy income tax theories can be viewed here, was smarter than she claimed, because they convicted her on four counts of failure to file.
I particularly liked her response at trial to section 1 of the tax code, which imposes a tax on the taxable income of "every married individual." When asked how she could have believed that this didn't apply to her, she testified "I couldn't find the definition of 'individual.'" Well, that clears that up, doesn't it?
It seems likely that Ms. Jackson will be the guest of the federal government for some time -- possibly up to four years, but I'm guessing about one year.
Protestors, if you read this, I hope you learn an important lesson from Ms. Jackson's conviction. If you don't like income tax, by all means agitate politically to get it repealed, but don't try to claim it doesn't exist. That craziness can land you in prison.
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