SOURCE: The Great IRS Hoax book, Section 6.4.15.

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The story below was taken from the personal testimony of Joe Banister given to me at the Freedom Rally held April 7, 2001 in Irvine hosted by the Freedom Law School (http://www.livefreenow.com). Joe also maintains his own website at:

Joe Banister has a BS degree in accounting and spent three years at KPMG Peat Marwick on their professional staff as a senior tax specialist and staff auditor. He went to work for the IRS in 1993 and was a licensed Certified Public Accountant. He enforced tax laws for the IRS, and quickly achieved high status and many awards within the government during his five year career with the IRS. Joe was an agent of the IRS Criminal Investigative Division in San Jose, CA for five years. In December 1996, he heard a talk show radio program with Geoff Metcalf in San Jose, and overheard Devvy Kidd being interviewed. She was claiming that the federal income tax was voluntary. Since Joe made his living investigating criminal violations of the tax laws, he listened intently to the radio program. His life has never been the same since then!

Subsequently, Joe wrote Devvy and asked for some materials. He received a package in January 1997 from Devvy containing two books approximately 50 pages in length. The books were entitled Why a Bankrupt America and Blind Loyalty. The books were filled with very shocking claims about the United Nations, the federal income tax system, and the federal banking and monetary systems, among other topics. He read the books thoroughly and found a more detailed explanation of the allegations she made on the radio. There were three allegations that he found the most profound and unbelievable:

1. Allegation 1: Due to Limitations Imposed By The U.S. Constitution, Filing of Federal Income Tax Returns and Payment of Federal Income Tax Is Voluntary, Not Mandatory.
2. Allegation 2: The 16^th AmendmentTo The U.S. Constitution, The Amendment Which Precipitated The Federal Income Tax, Was Never Legally Ratified.
3. Allegation 3: The U.S. Government Finances Its Operations Form the Unconstitutional Creation of Fiat Money, not with Revenue From Income Taxes.

Kidd’s allegations were so shocking to Mr. Banister and contrary to everything he had been taught that he spent many months simply thinking and meditating about what he had read. In the latter part of 1997, he read the book, The Creature From Jekyll Island, authored by G. Edward Griffin. Griffin’s book shared some of the same subject matter as Kidd’s books, which prompted Joe to pick Devvy’s books up a second time. During this second review, he noticed an unusual aspect about Kidd’s books that he had paid little attention to the first time through. Kidd had a practice of including telephone numbers of the people responsible for the evidence she provided. It was at this point that Joe realized he could simply telephone these men and make direct inquiries about the evidence supporting their allegations. In December 1997, Joe decided to contact them personally in order to determine the truth.

During the ensuing two years, Joe did his own research on his private time to try to verify the truth of the three allegations. Eventually, he convinced himself that Devvy’s claims were entirely true, and after two years of research, he submitted a preliminary report of his findings to his supervisor at the IRS. That supervisor forwarded the report up the chain. Joe asked his I.R.S. supervisor to help him refute the claims so he could have a clear conscience about continuing to work at the IRS. Instead of helping correct Joe in the error in his findings or set the record straight, his supervisor asked him to either desist or tender his resignation. Joe Banister decided to leave the IRS and quit on the anniversary of the signing of the 16^th Amendment, February 25, 1999. He eventually joined the tax freedom movement! He also joined the We The PeopleFoundation (http://www.givermeliberty.org) soon after his resignation and supported the efforts of employers to stop withholding. Part of his story was featured on a 60 MinutesII episode aired on CBS on April 2, 2001 in connection with a story entitled “Tax Revolt”. He was described as helping employers to legally stop income tax withholding of their employees. Joe defended the legal position of the employer during the 60 Minutes interview. He was very convincing. He has also been exposed to this book and I have personally met with him and obtained an autographed copy of his book about the illegality of the federal income tax. He is also a frequent speaker with the Freedom Law School and appears at their annual Freedom Rallies, usually held in April of each year in Irvine, CA (contact Peymon Mottahedeh, the President, at http://www.livefreenow.com/).

We encourage you to read more about Joe Banister’s story on his website shown above. You can also get a copy of his report off his website, entitled Investigating the Federal Income Tax: A Preliminary Report. The cost is $20.