Pro-Life Man Uses Tax Time to Protest Government-Funded
Abortions.
And Just Won!
The Internal Revenue Service is one of the
most hated entities in America.
No American enjoys paying taxes especially
since many of those taxes go to pay for and
fund institutions many find morally repugnant
and vile – institutions like Planned Parenthood
for example.
There have been discussions for decades about
defunding Planned Parenthood but insofar as
any real action to do so, there has not been
much, if anything, has actually been done.
Many people justify the payment of our income
taxes by due to the necessity of infrastructures
like roads, bridges, and hospitals.
There are also services like the fire department
or the public library to consider as well.
However, there are also other darker, more
morally reprehensible things such as the wholesale
murder of the unborn bought and paid for via
Title X tax funds that support entities like
Planned Parenthood as the largest abortion
provider in the country and also as a purveyor
of human fetal remains.
Michael Bowman is an American and a devout
Christian and he is taking a stand.
Tired of empty promises and no action Bowman
cited his Christian faith as a legal defense
against the government in a felony tax evasion
case and actually won the first round in court!
According to the Daily Mail –
“Michael Bowman told U.S. District Judge
Michael W. Mosman on Thursday that he is not
a tax protester and considers himself a true
patriot, but refuses to give a dime of his
money if its allocated to fund government
subsidized abortions.
Mosman noted in his ruling that prosecutors
failed to prove Bowman tried to conceal or
mislead the government by keeping a low bank
account balance so tax collectors couldn’t
garnish his account to pay taxes, according
to The Oregonian.
‘Not everything that makes collection efforts
more difficult qualifies as evasion,” the
judge added Wednesday.
Bowman said that he has refused to pay federal
income taxes since 1999, arguing that the
government must make accommodations for his
strongly held religious beliefs.
‘I’m not a tax protester.
I love my country.
I have a duty to my country.
I have a duty to my conscience,” the 53-year-old
contract engineer from Columbus City.
US federal prosecutors say that Bowman has
failed to submit a timely or accurate tax
return since 1997.
In retaliation for his perceived crimes, the
IRS levied Bowman’s bank account in January
of 2012 as well as garnishing his wages in
an effort to pay what the government states
he owes.
Bowman states he then began to make the necessary
adjustments in how he conducted his financial
transactions.
He chose to cash his checks and receive the
cash from an entity other than his bank as
well as keeping a low bank statement from
January 2010 to January 2014 in an effort
to circumvent the IRS and their collection
efforts.
Assistant U.S Attorneys Donna Brecker Maddux
and Rachel K. Sowray wrote in their original
criminal complaint against Bowman – “Defendant’s
altered bank behavior removed his income from
the reach of taxing authorities and allowed
him to avoid payment of assessed taxes.”
The indictment against Bowman states he owes
$356,857 to the federal government in back
taxes along with significant penalties accumulated
from the years of 2000, 2001, 2008 and 2009,
along with his failures to pay his income
tax to the IRS from 2012 to 2014.
Except Judge Mossman did not see things in
quite the same way as the prosecution, noting
that they failed to prove Bowman in any way
attempted to conceal or mislead the government
by keeping a low bank balance.
Bowman’s attorney argued before the court
that it was not a crime to deposit a check
and to subsequently withdraw that cash from
a bank account especially given that all checks
were disclosed to the IRS through his employer.
Defense attorney Matthew Schindler states
– “Like a player collapsing as they lose
Twister, the government has reached too far
forward and stretched way too far back.
Cashing a check at your own bank, made out
to you, representing income contemporaneously
disclosed by employers through 1099 and W-2
forms to the IRS is not ‘handling one’s
affairs to avoid making records.”
Mossman agreed with the defense and wrote
in his rendering of the legal decision – “Just
cashing checks is not evasion.”
However, Mossman ruled that the case would
be dismissed without prejudice which means
the government can, in turn, reopen the case
against Bowman and refile the charges against
him in court if they should choose to do so.
The prosecution has stated that the government
will need to deliberate on whether they will
choose to prosecute the case a second time
and then will assess if they plan to move
forward.
Bowman still currently faces four separate
counts of willful failure to file tax returns
which would be a misdemeanor for each count.
