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IPFS News Link • TAXES: Federal

Value: $0, Taxes: $40 Million

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But there is one item in the collection, a work by Robert Rauschenberg that cannot be sold. It contains a stuffed bald eagle and under the terms of the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the 1918 Migratory Bird Act, it is a felony to “possess, sell, purchase, barter, transport, import or export any bald eagle — alive or dead.” The estate, advised by three experts, including one from Christie’s, therefore, valued the work at zero. The IRS decided it was worth $65 million, and is demanding $29.2 million in taxes and $11 million in penalties because the heirs “inaccurately” stated its value.

2 Comments in Response to

Comment by PureTrust
Entered on:

If the people wanted to abolish the IRS, and everything else that is like the IRS, all they would have to do would be to pressure Congress into changing things. It would NOT take 100% of the people. A good number of people from every state working together could see that the income tax and the IRS were abolished.

My experience is that the people don't want to. The religious people I talk to say that Jesus wants us to pay the income tax. The non-religious people I talk to ask, then how would Government get their money? So, the people have been brainwashed into thinking that the IRS and the income tax are necessary.

I just wonder. If Ron Paul had made abolishing the income tax and the IRS the sole item, the sole platform, that he was running on, would he have done as good as he did in his race? I'm guessing that there are too many stupid smart people who think that the income tax is their savior to let anyone abolish the IRS.

Comment by Steve Scheetz
Entered on:

These people need to bring a lawsuit against the IRS for harassment.  An object can only be worth what someone is willing to pay for it.  Since it is against the law for ANYONE to write a check for this particular object, it cannot be sold therefore has no monitary value.

IF, on the other hand, the IRS can sidestep the law, like it does with everything else, and wants to write a check for $65 million, I am sure that the family would be willing to pay the taxes and penalties having been shown how wrong the rest of the law abiding citizens of the United States were in using logic in the assumption that an object cannot have a value if it cannot be sold. 

Frankly, the IRS is not intitled to ANYTHING given that this particular item was purchased with taxed money in the first place, but that is another argument for another time.

 

Steve



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