Up the Auditor! - Investing (Canada): 4/7/1999

Up the Auditor!

Dateline: 4/7/99

bureaucrat (byoor’ uh krat’) - an official who works by fixed routine without exercising intelligent judgment

- Random House College Dictionary

So the revenooers have said they want to audit your books! As Karl Malden used to say in those American Express commercials, “What will you do? What will you do?” Fortunately, you do have certain rights and the government snoops cannot just run roughshod over you. But they will try! So be prepared.

In his Inner Circle newsletter, Bill Ridley has been running a series of feature articles called Secrets of the Ultra-Rich by James Winston. A frustrated taxpayer, Winston has been researching the tax systems in both Canada and the United States and has learned how the wealthy manage to keep their hard earned money out of the hands of the government, legally. He shares some interesting tidbit every issue.

In the current April 1st edition, Ridley reports attending a meeting of a Calgary based group called De-Tax Canada. The group showed three home videos of Revenue Canada auditors in action. One supervisor at the Vancouver office openly sneered at the taxpayer when asked if Revenue Canada would uphold the taxpayer’s rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Another video showed a Revenue Canada rep physically attacking a man in front of witnesses. A judge later threw out the assault charge filed by the taxpayer because “it was not in the public’s best interest to proceed”. So much for impartial justice! Guess who pays the judge’s salary?

Winston points out that Revenue Canada agents get a commission on outstanding debts squeezed out of you, so they are motivated to put on pressure. When they first contact you they will issue threats like “If you do not pay us immediately we will take legal action to withhold your income or seize your assets.” No negotiation. No possibility they are mistaken. They want the money immediately.

Unlike the criminal courts which operate on a basis of innocence until proven guilty, the revenooers work the opposite way. You’re guilty, buddy, unless you can prove otherwise.

Auditors are just as motivated as the people who harass you by phone. But the De-Tax group has some handy suggestions for protecting your rights and stopping the bureaucrats in their tracks, at least temporarily.

If you get a call from Revenue Canada, have a tape recorder handy and inform the snivel serpent that you are recording the conversation. “In many cases,” says Winston, “they will just hang up!” But if they persist, go to step 2.
Ask for the nosy parker’s name and address. Then ask “Is that your birth name?” “Many taxation bureaucrats,” reports Winston, “do not use their real names.” Also ask what Ministry or Agency they work for.
Ask them for their T-3000 identification, which Winston says is their “license to abuse”. Then ask them when it expires. It seems that many Revenue Canada officials have been working with expired T-3000s and “consequently have been fraudulently representing themselves and illegally seizing tax payers bank accounts and other assets”. Winston reports that there is a major class action suit against Revenue Canada pending in British Columbia because of this abuse.
If the snivel serpent hasn’t turned into a shriveled serpent yet, ask if he ”will uphold the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as it pertains to the Mandator (that’s you)”. The usual answer according to Winston is “I refuse to answer” or “no comment”.

Some other questions De-Tax Canada says will annoy the heck out of the Nasty Boys (and which they will not answer) are:

Will the public servant furnish a copy of the law or regulations related to the matter at hand?
Will the public servant read aloud, prior to asking a question, the law or regulation that authorizes the questioning?

Are the answers requested of the mandator voluntary?
Will any refusal to answer questions self-incriminate the mandator?
Will the public servant guarantee that information supplied will not be shared with other departments or agencies?

What agencies have provided information to date related to the matter at hand?

The questions above are taken verbatim from Winston’s report. He says that if they refuse to answer (and he avers that they will, in fact, refuse), your rights are not protected and you should not comply until they respond.

But what if the *9&$@#& (expletives deleted) come to your home or business? “You have the right to record and video tape the interview” says Winston. And have “as many witnesses as possible to verify the actions of the public servant”.

Thanks to Bill Ridley and The Inner Circle for permission to extensively quote Winston’s article. If you are interested in finding out more on how James Winston can “guide you to tax free living”, email him at innercircle@sunshine.net with “taxes” in the subject line.

Some Notes on DeTax Canada

I didn't link to DeTax Canada in the article above because I wanted to add some comments and caveats for those who might be interested in exploring it further.

The group is basically the handiwork of 58 year old Eldon Warman of Calgary, Alberta. Mr. Warman relates that he used to be an American Airlines pilot living in the U.S. when he had "his career as an airline pilot destroyed, his estate and pension confiscated and his wife of 23 years murdered by the Internal Revenue Service of the USA". This led him to study tax law, history and philosophy and to develop his detax system, a strategy whereby individuals can supposedly legally refuse to file tax returns. He claims to have successfully avoided paying tax with his method for over ten years.

He provides a cursory overview of his detax system on his website, but the detailed version must be retrieved by FTP or sent by mail. The system depends on particular interpretations of Magna Carta and common law, as well as discerning a distinction between natural and artificial persons.The Income Tax Act, he argues, applies to artifical persons, or corporations, not to individuals or natural persons.

He will give you his detailed detax system free for the asking, though he asks for a "small" honorarium of a thousand dollars if you like it and can make use of it.

Now some strong caveats. Although Mr. Warman and I share some philosophical views about liberty and the role of government, he and I differ on a number of areas. Most notably, he believes there is an international conspiracy of financiers attempting to establish a world government. And yes, George Bush, the former U.S. President, is part it. Frankly, such theories are abject nonsense in my opinion, and do little to enhance Mr. Warman's credibility.

But I still like his entertaining way of dealing with federal snoops, so I offered it here. If you want to explore the Detax strategy further, visit the DeTax Canada website.

Disclaimer: The author is not a tax advisor or professional and does not necessarily endorse or recommend the strategies mentioned in this article. They are meant to provoke thought and hopefully to entertain. Giving federal bureaucrats the third degree may, in fact, backfire and make these unpleasant people even more ornery than they usually are.

Some Notes on DeTax Canada

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