Plethora Donkeys and Wesley Snipes

(Author’s note: No information contained in this article is to be viewed as expert, certified legal or tax advice.)

Yes, quite the odd title for a preparedness article, don’t you think? Imagine my surprise when I looked down at my “oh so superior new cell phone that the computer geek of a husband made us get” and saw those very same words–“plethora donkey”–which had just been texted, by my hand, to my friend.

“What the heck is “plethora donkey” and how in the world did I send that message to her?” It turns out, that my new fangled phone is supposedly one of those “thinking” phones and oh, so brilliantly anticipates what I intend to write. So somehow this brainiac of a phone decided that my intended phrase of “okey dokey” was just too passé and so instead decided to add some intrigue to my short missive. Now perhaps this may be a reach for you some of you, but when I saw the absurdity of connecting my intended message of “okey dokey” and convoluting it into something so far off-key as “plethora donkey” I couldn’t help but think about the same ludicrous scenarios we’re experiencing around our nation.

Recently you may have read a news article or two that Wesley Snipes has begun serving his federal prison sentence of three years for “failing to file a tax return.”  Mind you, there are some journalists who don’t know the difference between “failing to file a return” and “failing to pay taxes.”  Those who report that latter are grossly incorrect.  Regardless, I suspect that what started as an absolute truth that Mr. Snipes stumbled upon somehow got twisted into a “plethora donkey” for him. You see, it’s certainly not illegal to claim that you owe no taxes, so long as that’s factual, but you still must file an income tax return in order to dispute any prima facie evidence this is no doubt just lurking around in IRS files waiting for you to forget the basis of law of such evidence.  You know, prima facie evidence: Evidence that would, if uncontested, establish a fact or raise a presumption of a fact.

You see, when you earn money from most businesses nowadays, whether it be a Hollywood production company or a two-man carpet cleaning operation, inevitably you were asked to fill out an IRS form when you began such earnings, which allowed the person who’s paid you money to have all of the information they need to report the money they gave you as “taxable income” to the IRS. Unfortunately, there are probably no more than a thousand folks in the U.S. who actually know what the legal definition of “taxable income” is, and most of those who do work for the IRS and are quite accepting, even embracing of the “plethora donkeying” that has been committed against some of the most simple of vernacular. You see, you and I think we know perfectly well what “taxable income” is. It’s a perfectly clear and understandable term. But what most persons do not realize is that it doesn’t quite mean “okey dokey” like we thought. The meaning of such innocuous sounding words such as “employee, United States, employer’ and so many others have been bastardized among the 44,000 plus pages of the Internal Revenue Code.  Even worse, there does not exist any common sense area of the IRC which would provide a clear resource of such definitions.  No. Webster would kindly give you the definitions in alphabetical order. While the IRC hides this word on page 28,355 and the definition of this word on page 41,982—meanwhile using that seemingly simply understood word wantonly to intimidate you into submission on all of the other pages. In fact, the only thing which is obvious about the IRC is that it’s written to be deceptive. So, while that person who’s paying you money in exchange for your labor thinks they have a legal obligation to “rat you out” to the IRS by providing non-factual “evidence,” they have simply been duped as well into being complicit with the scheme.

When your W-2’s, 1099’s and such are submitted to the IRS, there is absolutely no legal fact which classifies the noted money which has been paid to you as meeting the legal definition of “income” on which you must pay taxes. It’s simply assumed that the person submitting such information has legitimate knowledge of such…after all, I’m sure they’ve read and comprehended all of the Internal Revenue Code as well as the United States Code and corresponding Supreme Court rulings, right? However, unless you refute the presumption of such “evidence” which has been proffered to the IRS with your name on it—and do so thoroughly—it remains uncontested and is thus considered a matter of fact otherwise. Upon researching this case, it’s clear to me that Snipes’ crime was not due to whether or not he paid sufficient taxes, rather it was that he never bothered to refute any evidence which had already been submitted on his behalf by his various banks, production companies, and other business interests. If a person is so aloof to omit informing the IRS that he does not actually owe such monies, then bah-bye…off to federal prison you go.  Does this strike anyone else as being akin to presuming that we are all mass murderers just because of one or two person’s flimsy say-so evidence until we can prove seven years of alibis?

According to the maze of 3.4 million+ words in the IRC, there’s no crime in not owing any taxes. In fact, the United States Code even goes so far as to uncover that the U.S. Treasurer actually has no legal authority to counter your refute of the prima facie evidence which may have been submitted.  As a matter of fact, the taxation of everyday citizens was originally to be a matter of honor in terms of reporting and voluntary in terms of payment by most lay workers, as most would NOT be legally defined in the IRC, USC or the U.S. Constitution as being liable for federal income taxes on monies they earned in exchange for their labor. Oh how far we are from “okey dokey” today though.

In the early 1940’s, only 13% of the U.S.A. population paid any federal income tax. This is consistent with the percentage of federal employees we had at that time, as legally defined in the IRC, which were actually liable for such payment.  However, in the early 1940’s, Walt Disney was cajoled into using his most popular Hollywood personality at that time, Donald Duck, as the focus of a short animated reel, which encouraged more Americans to volunteer to pay federal income taxes in an effort to help fund the War.  In light of such patriotic endearment, a significant percentage of Americans voluntarily claimed monies earned as taxable income and willingly paid. Unfortunately, few of that generation ever thought to educate their children and grandchildren of that fact and by then the U.S. Government had grown accustomed to the monies which poured in, long after the cost of World War II. As such, millions of Americans today fear the wrath of the IRS more than a scorned woman and blindly pay that which they do not legally, morally, or ethically owe.

Mind you, I am NOT an attorney, accountant, or anyone that the U.S. Government would define as an “expert” on these matters, and thus none of what I’m sharing in this article should be misconstrued as legal advice, rather it’s my personal experience uncovered in much research, however, it’s my opinion that paying more than we owe in taxes is a far cry from what our Founding Father’s ever intended and does more to threaten the economic security of our nation than foreign enemies. Money spent on the runaway train of government is money that would be more valuable in providing for the necessities that so many are having to do without nowadays—and, in my opinion, is stealing from the legacy of our posterity.  How did we come so far from “okey dokey” to “plethora donkey?”  Frankly speaking, we stopped taking responsibility for knowing what our freedoms really were; we shirked and passed the learning and teaching of such freedoms to boards and administrators.  We stopped seeing and comprehending the clear evidence of freedom that marries so well with a self-reliant life.  Grant it, there will be hard-felt consequences to some if we ever wake up and own this state of despair.  Some will find their dole lifestyle abruptly halted, while others will find their private jets no longer paid for on the backs of hardworking Americans.  But like many things which I look forward to with eagerness, taking us back to root of integrity and an honest harvest, I think that such changes would be a welcome scenario for most.

And that, Dear Friends, is what I call the lesson of the plethora donkey.