Irwin Schiff

Irwin A. Schiff is a prominent member of the United States group which refers to itself as the "tax honesty movement", and which has been referred to by the Internal Revenue Service and other government agencies as the tax protester movement. Schiff is known for writing and promoting literature that shows the United States income tax is applied incorrectly. Schiff also runs a web site named "PayNoIncomeTax.com", which offers his various books for sale. He has lost several civil cases against the federal government and has a record of multiple convictions for various federal tax crimes.

In 1978 Schiff was convicted of willful failure to timely file Federal income tax returns. Because the admission of a videotape of his appearance on a television talk show in that case was ruled unduly prejudicial, that conviction was overturned, and the case remanded for a new trial. He was convicted a second time for failure to file, and that conviction was affirmed (see United States v. Schiff, 647 F.2d 163 (2d Cir. 1981)). In 1985 he was convicted of tax evasion and willful failure to file a corporate tax return, and that conviction was also affirmed (see United States v. Schiff, 801 F.2d 108 (2d Cir. 1986), cert. denied, 480 U.S. 495 (1987)). See also United States v. Schiff, 2003-2 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) paragr. 50,546 (D. Nev. 2003). Despite having spent four years in prison, Schiff continued his tax protest related activity.

In June of 2004, a Federal court ruled that Schiff was liable for over $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest for the years 1979 through 1985. In that case, Schiff's attorney had filed a brief claiming a diminished capacity defense, contending that Schiff had been diagnosed with a chronic, severe delusional disorder relating to his beliefs about the federal income tax system.

On October 24, 2005, Schiff was convicted on multiple counts of filing false tax returns, aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns filed by other taxpayers, conspiring to defraud the United States and income tax evasion, and he is again serving jail time [1] (see below). Although Schiff responded with numerous complaints about the trial process, including a claim that Judge Kent Dawson did not allow Schiff to present evidence at his trial,[2], his appeal was dismissed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on December 9, 2005.

One of Schiff's co-defendants, Lawrence Cohen, was sentenced on February 3, 2006 to 2 years and 9 months in prison and was ordered to pay $480,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. On February 23, 2006, Cynthia Neun (another co-defendant) was sentenced to 5 years and 8 months in prison and ordered to pay over $1.1 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. According to the prosecutor's office, Neun sold materials encouraging people not to pay taxes, prepared false tax returns, and represented hundreds of taxpayers in dealings with the IRS where she promoted Schiff's arguments. She will be required to submit to three years of supervision following her release from prison.

In this last case Schiff's attorneys again asked that the court consider the claim that Schiff has a mental disorder relating to his beliefs about taxes. Despite Schiff's age (approximately 78 years old), he was sentenced on February 24, 2006 to over 13 years in prison, consisting of 12 years and 7 months in prison on the 2005 tax convictions and an additional year for contempt of court. He was also ordered to pay more than $4.2 million in restitution, and to serve three years of supervised release. According to the prosecutor's office the evidence at trial showed that Schiff had attempted to evade the payment of over $2 million in taxes from 1979 through 1985, and that he had used offshore bank accounts using multiple tax identification numbers and had attempted to hide assets in connection with his tax protester related activity.

Publications

Books written by Schiff include the following:

• Federal Mafia: How It Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes (1992) ISBN 0930374096
• The Great Income Tax Hoax: Why You Can Immediately Stop Paying This Illegally Enforced Tax (1985) ISBN 0930374053
• How an Economy Grows and Why It Doesn't (1985) ISBN 0930374061
• The Social Security Swindle: How Anyone Can Drop Out (1984) ISBN 0930374045
• How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Taxes (1982) ISBN 0930374037
• The Kingdom of Moltz (1980) ISBN 0930374029
• The Biggest Con: How the Government Is Fleecing You (1977) ISBN 0930374010

External links

• Pay No Income Tax – Irwin Schiff's website. (Wikipedia bears no responsibility for the contents of this site, and is not responsible for any consequences of following any advice therein).
• Irwin Schiff B.S. – A blog detailing the failure of Schiff's theories.
• Quatlosers Hall of Shame — Irwin Schiff
• "ACLU of Nevada asks court to end ban of book critical of the IRS" – ACLU Amicus Brief in U.S. v. Schiff, challenging an injunction prohibiting Schiff or his associates from distributing the book Federal Mafia. The order did not prevent others from selling or distributing the book, and it is still available for sale from other sources (e.g., see Amazon.com).