Color emphasis, bold emphasis and highlights are by Me.

Freedom Above Fortune News

Dear Friends:

I am proud to announce that the number of former IRS officials who have openly and publicly lent their voices to the chorus of professionals and citizens who believe that the IRS is knowingly misapplying the federal income tax laws has now reached the size of a basketball team.  If recent developments are any indication, the basketball-sized "truth team" of former IRS officials will soon grow to the size of a "football team", and later to the size of a "football stadium".

The newest member is Clifton BealeClifton spent nearly 19 years with the Internal Revenue Service.  He was an IRS Revenue Agent from November, 1979 through August 1987, and an IRS Appeals Officer from August, 1987 to September, 1998.  Among his many accomplishments, Clifton is an accomplished author and has a Master's Degree in TaxationClifton has three grown children and four grandchildren.

According to Clifton's website ( www.cliftonbeale.com ), he is a strong believer in complying with the rules and regulations of the United States Code, Constitution, Supreme Court cases still in force and other Positive Laws registered in the U. S. Federal Register applicable to compliance of the entities as written, tried and considered.  As you can see from the information on his website, being an advocate for the Constitution and believing in complying with the United States Code has caused the IRS to take a disliking to him, which is an all too common occurrence among "basketball team" members. 

The "basketball team" roster now includes (in alphabetical order):

Joseph R. Banister, C.P.A., former IRS-CID Special Agent

Clifton Beale, CEP, A.S., B.S., MS-Taxation, Former IRS Revenue Agent and Appeals Officer

Paul Chappell, Attorney at Law, former U.S. Tax Court Clerk, IRS Chief Counsel Attorney
Sherry P. Jackson, C.P.A., C.F.E., former IRS Revenue Agent
John Turner, E.A., former IRS Revenue Officer

Our "bench" includes many other former IRS personnel who have yet to permit their names to be used publicly.  The 5 "starters" anxiously await permission from the "benchwarmers" to announce their names so that they can come out onto the court and show the American audience what our IRS opponent is truly about.  The "starters" are getting tired and taking lots of elbows, knees, and other cheap shots and we need a full bench. 

If you are a current or former IRS official and you are ready to come out on the court, send a letter to me at care of

Freedom Above Fortune Educational Institute,

P.O. Box 90239,

San Jose, California
95109-4239

If you want to take additional steps to preserve your privacy while communicating with me, place my name and address in the return address slot or use the name and address of a trusted friend in the return address slot.  I will never reveal your name unless you permit me to do so.

Please welcome Clifton by visiting his website or sending him a brief note.  His email address is CBeale622@comcast.net .  To help him manage the tons of email he will probably receive, please put a proper greeting in the subject field of your email such as "Welcome Clifton", "Thank You Clifton", "Schedule an Interview" (for media) "Schedule a Consultation" (for anyone who can benefit from the knowledge possessed by a 19 year veteran of the IRS).

Please spread this email far and wide.

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Joe [Bannister],

This is great news and your "introduction" of Clifton Beale was stupendous.  Not only was it very clever to use a basketball team analogy, but it was also clever and appropriate to allude to the "starters" as being "tired" and battle worn, and to solicit new "team members" to join the roster!

Our message is NOT: Anti-IRS  Anti-government Anti-tax.  We don't support cheating.  We want a strong, well-funded, responsive, but honest-dealing government.  Not perfect – just honest.

Our message IS:   Pro-freedomPro-constitution and rule of law. We support the government in its rightful activities to protect the Republic, the American people and our way of life.  But we must be vigilant and act lawfully whenever we see government stepping out of line to see that it changes its behavior.  Though the risk may be high and sacrifice might be required, we must take appropriate steps to encourage the government to obey the Law (whether about taxes or anything else for that matter).

I say "we" (about our message), not meaning to literally speak for others, but reasonably
comfortable that few would argue with my expressed opinion as to what we do and do not support.

I believe the solution for the problems associated with IRS' misapplication of the income tax laws is a POLITICAL SOLUTION.  In the meantime, many are forced to deal with the agency in administrative matters, and in civil and criminal judicial situations.  In saying that, I am not meaning to include people who deliberately have cheated on their tax returns or who have failed to file or pay when the believe they are required to do so.  I am more precisely referring to the many who have purposely, albeit not always appropriately, correctly, or successfully taken steps as individuals to try and challenge the agency and to attempt to have it obey the law.

Many good and decent people have been convicted of "tax crimes" and imprisoned because they stood for their beliefs and convictions.  Far more people, also because they acted upon their understanding and beliefs about the income tax, have lost property and suffered much personally.  This should not occur in the country on such a broad and regular basis.  Americans are a fair-minded, generous and patriotic people who love their country and want to pay taxes that are mandatory, but it is a big clue that the system really is a problem in need of fixing, when you realize just how many good and decent people have been negatively affected by the brute enforcement powers of the IRS.

Therefore, people need to set aside petty differences which they have clung to about the
income tax and its administration.  If possible, they need to identify major differences and
disagreements they have about the nature of the income tax and the solutions for correcting the problem, and move to unify themselves politically and strategically.  It is time to cause Congress to finally deal with the problem.

There are many good reasons to scrap the Internal Revenue Code and the income tax.  As far as I am concerned, the tax code could stay with us forever if it would be properly enforced.  But it hasn't been and it never will be, so the only solution is to scrap it. 

At this point, I am meaning to reach out to and include a large body of Americans:

Those who really don't know much at all about the income tax and have no definite opinion except that they don't like it. 

I am including those who don't believe it is fair, that it is too burdensome and too complex to be understood. 

I am including those who are working hard to get rid of it and replace it with a "fair tax", a "flat tax", or a "national sales tax".

Oh, and I don't mean to leave out those who really have no clue with no "bellyache" about the income tax or IRS, but might show concern and take time to learn if someone just took a minute to plant a seed with them and spike their curiosity.

And I do mean to include those who think they know all about it and have concluded we (in the tax movement) are all wet.  If you're in that category and are actually holding to your opinion because of fear that we might be correct, or because you have never really looked into it but have done some cursory reading and called it "research"; I don't want to exclude you.  Please, take another whirl.  But even if your conclusion remains the same, that the income tax is not being improperly enforced or misapplied, perhaps you could agree that there is a better way to raise revenue and would be inclined to become politically active to help make a needed change.

I am also including those "tax professionals", a very large group, who have much to lose if the system is scrapped because it would more or less affect what they do for a living.  It's time for tax professionals to actually red the tax law and/or correctly read the law, and to be open-minded and objective in doing so. 

And of course I am also including the smaller but growing group, those of us who have looked into the problem very deeply and for the moment are less concerned about what replaces the tax - if anything -  and are more immediately concerned about finding a vehicle or method of forcing the agency to obey the law or to see the whole thing scrapped

The agency has no motivation to do things much differently than they do and will not change unless forced by pressure from the outside. 

Congress has no motivation to step in because the income tax, as it is being improperly enforced, is the source of all that they do.  C'mon people, much of what they do with our money we don't like and love to complain about.  It's time to at least make them acquire our money via an honest system!  (Then we can figure out how to make them more accountable for how they spend it.)

The Court will not do anything about it as they have said it is a "political" problem, as I too have expressed.

It is come to where it is up to the people of America to take this to Congress and give 'em that proverbial, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!" ultimatum.

The mainstream media is of no help.  In fact, they are generally hurtful.  They either report on the age-old problem which is not news, that is, that the system is complicated, burdensome, unfair, etc.  Or, when they occasionally turn their attention to individuals in the so-called "tax-honesty" movement, they paint a picture that is typically not accurate.
Through editing and other purposeful tactics, they almost always portray proponents of the tax-honesty movement as people who are selfish, loony, radical, misguided, wrong and any number of other unflattering terms.  Interestingly, that sort of tactic takes place all too often, unfortunately, in criminal tax cases by the prosecution against "patriot" defendants.  To be sure, there are some people like that in the tax movement, just as there are also those types in other areas of controversy on the American social and political scene.

If the media, the government, corporate America, the legal system and tons of special interest groups were primarily concerned with truth and justice and with what is BEST for Americans overall, this solution would not be a big problem.  However, truth in this country has taken a back seat to what each person, each group, each power source and each entity thinks is best for it and it's wants.

Even the one, truly bright spot in American media, conservative talk-radio, won't address the controversies of the improperly enforced and misapplied American income tax. It cannot be fathomed by most of the national voices that something really could be wrong with the income tax as some of us claim.  Therefore it cannot be seriously entertained which means it cannot be given air time.  If not, and if the big boys do have an inkling about the problem, then they may just be hampered and controlled by the corporate powers and simply forbidden to devote much on the subject.  It is time for some of these national "voices" to get curious and look into this controversy.

For the media and other power sources to dismiss "tax protesters" as people who have been making frivolous arguments and that the courts have long upheld the income tax for years and years is to look at it obtusely.  Instead, they might ought to be wondering why so many people for so many years have been questioning various aspects about the tax!
Clue: with very little exception taxes besides income taxes have almost no "protesting",
"protesters" or controversy.

Truth has been relegated to a low spot on the "totem pole" in America.  Therefore, the income tax problem is DEEP, LONG-STANDING, COMPLEX, CONTROVERSIAL AND TROUBLING.  The solution seems complicated and out of reach.  I don't admit to know the perfect solution.  I trust in the deep resources and intelligence of the people of this land and believe we can find the solution.

We have many great people in the USA.  We have people of great talent who have earned much wealth.  We have people with keen and brilliant minds.  We have people who have established great credibility in their accomplishments and behaviors.  We even have a few people in high political places who maintain their principles while under pressure.  You hate to name names because you necessarily cannot include everyone you'd like to.

I want to thank Alan Keyes for his statesmanship, his principles and his great oratorical skills.  Mr. Keyes understands the perniciousness of the income tax and has long been speaking about it. 

I want to thank Joseph Sobran as he is an American treasure who likewise understands the diabolical nature of the income tax as it is being enforced in this country. 

I want to thank Texas Congressman Ron Paul who also knows full well about the abusive income tax and supports the abolishment of the current income tax since neither IRS nor the Congress has moved to improve or remedy agency indiscretions.  The country
needs a few dozen more politicians like Ron Paul, who have his clarity of mind and his resolve to speak and vote "no" on proposed legislation that simply does not meet Constitutional muster – in letter or in spirit.

There are even well-known, financially blessed, highly successful people in the American
entertainment business who know and understand that IRS is misapplying the income tax against Americans who are not liable.  I won't name names as they have not, to my knowledge, publicly spoken on the subject.

It is time now for all Americans who support the rule of law, who are concerned about having good, responsible government, to raise their personal contributions upward a notch - or two.  It is especially time for those who have been blessed many times over in using their talents and forging their success in the American political and economic system, to step up and become involved, even if only behind the scenes, if necessary.  It is time for larger numbers of people of profound influence, wealth and talent to first discover the fraud associated with the current income tax scheme, and then to roll up their sleeves and assist in ways that they see fit to see it corrected.

To be sure the income tax as written and as applied serves many quite well.  But in whatever form it is written and however it is administered, if it cannot be done according to law, as opposed to bluff, intimidation, propaganda, judicial manipulation and sheer, brute force then it should not be allowed to stand any further.

If there would be those reading this who are wondering about my claims that the agency is misapplying the income tax law I would only hope and expect that they would investigate it for themselvesDon't take my word for it.  Don't rely solely on the "tax-honesty" movement.  And don't take the government's word either.  Give up some golf, set aside some time from TV watching, line up some resources and jump into a serious study.  See if you can perhaps close-in on and learn why 5 named IRS enforcement agents are now FORMER IRS agents who are speaking publicly about this issue.     

Solutions to complex, far-reaching problems, as with simple problems, are always much easier to determine and implement when honesty and other virtues are paid attention to. 

The solution for correcting the current misapplication of the income tax law and its abusive enforcement tactics is political, and politically involved we must become.

Joe, thank you again for your post to introduce Clifton Beale. 

Clifton, thank you for your courage and God bless you.

Sincerely,

John Turner, former IRS revenue officer (resigned) 
"Tax preparation – Through my own extensive research and consideration of the U. S. Constitution, The United States Code, applicable Supreme Court cases dating back to at least 1895 and a review of various Titles of positive law in the U. S. Federal Register, I will no longer prepare tax returns for anyone or any type of entity. Posted 11/22/2003."