Confessions of a Radical Tax Protestor

Summary

Larry Williams has always had a problem with authority, especially government authority - the U.S. or any other. Libertarian, trader, would be politician, and Indiana Jones-like adventurer, Larry has gone wherever his spirit moved him and bucked state constraints whenever he found them stifling. Throughout his life, his rebellious spirit served him well - huge successes in trading, adventures right out of a Graham Greene novel in Saudi Arabia, two boisterous runs for the U.S. Senate, a famous actress daughter entangled with an even more famous actor, a new grandchild - the life well lived that would be the envy of most people. Along the way, Larry became a tax protester in the spirit of John Cheek and Irwin Schiff. However, Larry was far too free a spirit to give up his freedom for his beliefs, and figured that he was smarter than the zealot tax protesters now making license plates, particularly after meeting a man with an actual and real document from the IRS acknowledging the legitimacy of a certain kind of trust. But things are not always what they seem. Annoying letters from the IRS called for hiring an attorney to "work things out," which he thought (based on the bills he was paying) was in the works. Enjoying a pleasant flight in first class from South Africa to Australia, Larry, at the age of 64 with a new granddaughter and children well settled in successful lives of their own, reflected that life was pretty sweet. Then his plane landed in Australia and he was summarily arrested and jailed. And there began a nearly 4 year fight for his freedom at a huge financial cost; worse was the toll it took on his psyche (though he did make a lot of money trading to pay those bills when he was under arrest in Australia). This is the story of Larry's war with the IRS and U.S. Dept. of Treasury and the underside of the seamy world of tax protesters. Larry is still against current U.S. tax policy but now he's doing PSAs for the IRS on the folly of protesting on an individual basis.