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ARMED IRS AGENTS RAID GUN SHOP
A June 21, 2023 article in the Epoch Times describes another likely use of the 87,000 new agents that are scheduled to be hired by the IRS.
Here is what the article described:
- On June 14, 2023, 20 heavily armed IRS agents from the IRS Criminal Investigation Division carrying semi-automatic rifles and dressed in full tactical gear greeted Tom Van Hoose, the store owner, when he arrived to open his Great Falls, Montana gun shop at 7:30 a.m.
- Whenever someone purchases a firearm, they must fill out a Firearms Transaction Record, ATF Form 4473, which contains the buyer’s name, address, vital information, and photo ID.
- During the 10 hours the agents were there, they seized 12,000 individual firearms ATF Form 4473’s along with other financial records.
- Gun Owners of America (GOA) said the organization remains “incredibly concerned about any effort by agents of the federal government to seize firearm transaction records given the nearly 1 billion records already in possession of the ATF that are being digitally transferred into a searchable database in direct contradiction to existing statute.”
- In a June 19 statement, GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt said the raid was an “incredibly alarming incident to hear about—especially given the checkered past of the IRS targeting conservatives.”
- “This continued weaponization by the Biden Administration of federal agencies to go after their political opponents once again underscores the dire need for Congress to act, including defunding the ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms] and demanding answers from the IRS.”
- Van Hoose believes the search for financial information linking him with a crime was just a “ruse” by the IRS-CI to seize private information on firearms purchases at his store.
- Van Hoose said, “They’re trying to put mom-and-pop gun shops out of business all across America. They will try to bankrupt me if they can’t find a legal or regulatory reason to put me out of business.”
IRS CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DIVISION
This is a disturbing article for many reasons.
First, the agency charged with regulating the sale of firearms by Mr. Van Hoose’s gun shop is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
If there was reason to believe that Mr. Van Hoose was not complying with federal firearm laws, the ATF has special agents that can make an armed raid.
However, this raid wasn’t conducted by ATF. This was the IRS.
This is what the IRS website says about its criminal investigation unit:
IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) serves the American public by investigating potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes in a manner that fosters confidence in the tax system and compliance with the law.
It seems logical that the CI will be directing attention to apprehending people who are evading taxes—like drug dealers and criminals in other activities.
We can see why the CI agents will need to be armed because the people they are investigating are likely to have and use weapons.
In 2021, the IRS proudly announced:
Over 2,500 criminal investigations, the identification of more than $10 billion from tax fraud and financial crimes, and a nearly 90% conviction rate.
"IRS-CI agents are the only federal law enforcement officers with the authority to investigate criminal violations of the U.S. tax code. Their work reinforces the backbone of our voluntary compliance tax system – a system that funds services and benefits for our nation, including defense, infrastructure and education," said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig.
There were 261 million federal tax returns filed in 2021.
Does anyone believe that out of those 261 million returns, there were only 2,500 criminal evasions of the income tax in 2021? The IRS admitted in 2021, there was over $1 trillion of evasion.
TERRORISM
You may be surprised to learn that their CI manual provides:
Terrorism Strategy
1. Federal law enforcement agencies have been mobilized to fight terrorism. In support of this national effort, CI will provide financial investigative assistance in terrorism matters and devote resources in support of terrorist task force initiatives to disrupt and dismantle terrorism financing operations.
Terrorism? In the article, Mr. Van Hoose said that a Homeland Security agent was surveilling him and said that he was on a terrorist watch list. Is he a terrorist because someone who purchased a gun from him said bad things about the government?
Who defines terrorism and terrorism financing operations? Is the mother questioning a school board ruling committing terrorism that would warrant an IRS raid of her business that is financing her family expenses?
It is time to eliminate the corrupt IRS and income/payroll tax system.
CONCLUSION
When we enact the FAIRtax and eliminate the IRS, what will happen to the competent employees of the CI and the IRS?
They can be transferred to other agencies, like the FBI or DEA, to go after real criminals—not ordinary Americans who some bureaucrat suspects may not be acting in the manner D.C. thinks that they should.
The FAIRtax transfers power from the government and bureaucrats to the people. We, not the bureaucrats and D.C., decide how much tax we pay.
Congress and D.C. know that there is a better alternative to the present system—the FAIRtax.
Instead of spending time and money doing endless hours of paperwork that don’t create anything of value to yourself, your family or the nation, why not eliminate the unnecessary waste?
Isn’t it time to end this ludicrous tax collection system and the IRS?
When the FAIRtax is enacted, there will be no need to fear of being audited by the IRS or raided by armed IRS agents because there will be no more IRS.
There is going to be a vote on the FAIRtax in the House of Representatives. McCarthy and the other elites didn’t want it, but it was forced on them.
We now have the opportunity to force all Members of the House to show where they stand. They can:
- Vote for the present income/payroll tax system or for the FAIRtax.
- Support the corrupt income tax and the IRS or eliminate it. It can’t be any simpler than that.
- Hide the true cost of their government or pass the FAIRtax and show everyone the true cost of government on each retail receipt.
- Support the largest transfer of power from government to the people, the FAIRtax, or not.
Please stand with us and demand that your representative support a much fairer, much simpler and much more efficient way to fund the government—the FAIRtax!
The FAIRtax doesn’t pick winners and losers. Because it taxes spending, not earnings, the FAIRtax lets everyone save for their retirement tax free.
The FAIRtax will allow us to TAKE BACK CONTROL.
The income/payroll tax system is broken and no longer working—we can’t repair it but we can replace it with the FAIRTAX!
Join us and TAKE BACK CONTROL OF OUR COUNTRY AND OUR LIVES—NOT WITH BULLETS BUT WITH THE ELIMINATION OF ONE OF THE BIGGEST THREATS TO OUR LIBERTY AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY—THE INCOME/PAYROLL TAX.
We all should remember Edmund Burke’s warning that applies to our efforts to TAKE BACK CONTROL,
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
We should also remember this quote from George Orwell's 1984, which, if we do nothing, may foretell your and your children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
WHAT CAN EACH OF US DO?
We can write letters and make calls to our elected representatives and attend Zoom town hall meetings demanding that if they really want to allow Americans to “TAKE BACK CONTROL”, the first step is to eliminate the income/payroll tax system and enact the FAIRTAX!
TAKE BACK CONTROL! Help us PASS THE FAIRTAX!
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