shad@teldata.UUCP (Warren N. Shadwick) (02/14/86)
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From the _Seattle_Times_, Wednesday, February 12, 1986:
"Group hoping for end to income tax"
by Dee Norton, Times staff reporter
A group of Seattle police officers and firefighters who call
themselves constitutionalists want the city to stop deducting
federal income tax from their paychecks.
Seattle police officer Dennis Falk and Sgt. Keith Engstrom have
joined with 15 to 20 other officers and firefighters in the effort.
The group hopes a federal appeals court case scheduled to be heard
in Seattle starting today will bolster their position.
Attorneys for Leland Stahl of Montana plan to argue before a 9th
Circuit Court of Appeals panel that the 16th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, which establishes the federal income tax, is invalid
because it was not properly ratified.
Stahl wants the court to overturn his conviction on three counts
of failing to file income-tax returns.
Thumping a large new book titled "The Law That Never Was,"
Engstrom contends, "Not one state properly ratified the 16th Amend-
ment."
The book, by Bill Benson of Illinois and M.J. "Red" Beckman of
Montana, details how a number of states changed the proposed 16th
Amendment before ratifying more than 70 years ago. The authors
claim that the changes - including punctuation, capitalization, and
spelling changes - voided the states' ratification votes.
The ratification argument has been made in several earlier
income-tax cases without success. Falk and Engstrom say the argument
failed to win a case in 1983 because copies of records showing the
errors in the ratification process had not been certified. But that
problem has been solved for Stahl's case, say the men, because
Benson and Beckman have obtained certified records concerning the
ratification from the states involved.
The income tax war for Engstrom, Falk and the others became
confrontational several years ago when they submitted their income
tax withholding forms to the city, Falk said he was exempt from
paying income taxes.
The city sent the forms to the Internal Revenue Service, which
responded with a series of letters to the officers. The IRS also
directed the city to deduct taxes from the officers' paychecks as
if each officer were single with one deduction - the highest rate.
The IRS also levied a $500 penalty against each officer and
firefighter for filing a fraudulent withholding, or W-4 form.
"Some officers have been levied almost to death," said Falk, who
in 1978 co-sponsored an unsuccessful initiative which would have
done away with safeguards for gays in housing and employment.
Several Officers also sued the city comptroller's office
employees in Small Claims Court to enforce the W-4 requests. The
suits were thrown out. Falk expects his group to push the issue
with a class-action suit in Superior Court later this year.
Assistant City Attorney Jorgen Bader said he's following the
letter of the law in dealing with those who don't want income taxes
taken out of their paychecks.
"They (the IRS) gave us an order and we are doing exactly what
it says because that is the law," Bader said. Financial penalties
could be levied against the city if it does otherwise, he said.
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