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Tax protester in area on way to Washington
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| By: Scott Tynes |
July 21, 2003 |
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A Christian minister from Texas is making a stopover in Brookhaven this weekend while marching from Austin to Washington, D.C., to protest taxes.
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Gene Chapman of Denton, Texas, said the march is only the latest in a string of activities he and others are doing to bring attention to their cause of stopping personal income taxes.
"We're trying to raise awareness of what we believe is an abuse of the tax system," he said.
Head shaven and wearing wire-rimmed glasses, leather sandals and white loincloth wraps called dhotis, Chapman resembles the late Indian peace activist Mahatma Gandhi.
It is no coincidence, he said. He has shaped his life after the Nobel prize-winning activist and holds fasts and marches in support of his cause. The former truck driver and seminary student completed a 40-day "death fast" in Austin on the steps of the regional Internal Revenue Service in April and began his march eight days later.
His supporters are able to keep up with his location on the group's website, www.exodus10-3.org, and at another address, www.easttexasnews.com.
Chapman said his march is sponsored by the We The People Congress and other organizations.
"We're just trying to get the word out that the government is lying to us about our tax system," he said. "We're not opposed to paying taxes at all, but we believe there are certain ways to tax appropriately."
According to Chapman, the Bible excuses and supports excise taxes, such as the sales tax, but does not condone taxes on assets, such as labor. Therefore, personal income taxes should be removed.
The difference could be made up by raising excise taxes to cover the loss in income. The entire income would not have to be made up, however, because without income taxes there would be no real need for the IRS and the money used to fund it could be used elsewhere, Chapman said.
The founding fathers, he believes, never intended the government to intrude into its citizens' personal lives, such as the IRS does every year at tax time.
"There is no tax liability in the law," he said. "The government just coerces it out of us."
Chapman said the march is his way of taking the argument to Washington and to the people. He did not have a set date for when he plans to arrive in Washington.
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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