Irwin Allen Schiff was an American libertarian and tax resistance advocate known for writing and promoting literature in which he argued that the income tax in the United States is illegal and unconstitutional.
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17 Facts About Irwin Schiff
2.
Irwin Schiff is the father of businessman and former United States Senate candidate Peter Irwin Schiff.
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4.
Irwin Schiff's parents were immigrants from Poland and his father worked as a carpenter.
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6.
Irwin Schiff had filed income tax returns through the tax year 1973.
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7.
Irwin Schiff contended that because Federal Reserve notes were not backed by gold, they were not "income" for purposes of the Federal income tax.
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8.
Irwin Schiff began conducting seminars on Federal income taxes in 1977.
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9.
Six days after his appearance on The Tomorrow Show, Irwin Schiff was charged with willful failure to file tax returns for the years 1974 and 1975.
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10.
Irwin Schiff was convicted on both counts and appealed his conviction to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
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11.
Irwin Schiff was convicted a second time for failure to file, and that conviction was affirmed.
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12.
Irwin Schiff was released from the Federal prison system in June 1993.
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13.
In June 2004, a Federal court ruled that Irwin Schiff was liable for over $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest for the years 1979 through 1985.
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14.
In that case, Irwin Schiff's attorney had filed a brief claiming a diminished capacity defense, contending that Irwin Schiff had been diagnosed with a chronic, severe delusional disorder relating to his beliefs about the federal income tax system.
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15.
That was characterized by some of his opponents as a claim that those beliefs were the product of a delusion or even insanity and that Irwin Schiff had willingly allowed his defense counsel to raise such an argument.
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16.
Irwin Schiff responded to these claims and stated that the diminished capacity defense was an attempt to prevent the judge from rendering a summary judgment and instead allow a jury trial.
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17.
Irwin Schiff asserted that this was different from an insanity defense.
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