UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
for the Fourth Circuit
Henry R. Patriot ) Court of Appeals NO. ________ Appellant - Petitioner ) Tax Court NO. ______________ vs. ) Commissioner of Internal Revenue ) Attachment to Informal Brief Appellee - Respondent )
Appellant - Petitioner Henry R. Patriot hereby files his Attachment to Informal
Brief, dated the same as this. Patriot appeals the decision of the U.S. Tax Court
dated July 10, 2006, Final Order dated July 24, 2006 and the denial of his Motion
for Rehearing dated August 8, 2006.
Appellant is 87 years old, in poor health and unable to proceed in this case. Further,
his wife Lee is older, and in much worse health, senile and was in a nursing home
on the date of this case. Additionally several years ago Patriot had a house fire
and all of his papers were destroyed. The IRS is a bullying, out of control agency
that takes advantage of elderly citizens who cannot defend themselves or afford
high-priced council. District Council knew from the beginning that Patriot was aged,
partially senile and not competent to handle the complexities of tax litigations.
The Trial Judge was most considerate and kind to Patriot, but made some errors.Patriot
contests the imposition of the frivolous penalty under IRC 6673 because he did not
file any frivolous or unacceptable pleadings. However, Patriot was confused following
his testimony when the Judge disallowed the reading of his only evidence. Therefore
he stated verbally his opinions about the Internal Revenue Code. Patriot admits
he made verbal statements that in the past have been found by the Courts to be frivolous.Unfortunately
for the IRS, the penalty provisions of IRC 6673 only pertain to pleadings and written
material, not verbal opinions. Patriot did not file tax returns for the years in
question because he was retired and did not meet the filing threshold. Patriot was
entitled to the standard deduction, deduction for himself and also his dependent
wife. Taken together Patriot did not make enough taxable income according to the
IRS to be required to file or pay taxes. However, Patriot’s papers were lost in
the house fire. Nevertheless, Patriot testified under oath at the trial in Tax Court.
His statements under oath about his deductions were not disproved by the IRS and
therefore should be taken as fact. Unfortunately District Council asked the 87-year-old
man for his wife Lee’s Social Security Number that Patriot did not know. After the
trial, Patriot produced her Social Security number and the date of the marriage.
However, Patriot should not have to prove known and undisputable facts, this was
purely harassment by the District Council. Internal Revenue Code is so complex and
confusing that no one knows what it says or what it means. Patriot may have raised
“tax protestor type arguments” decades ago but did not use any in his pleadings
in this case, or even mention, or use such arguments.
After Patriot’s testimony after he left the stand, after bullying and harassment
by District Council, Patriot petitioned the Trial Court for help. Patriot was obviously
confused, mentally exhausted and somewhat distressed by the bullying. Consequently
Patriot admits he made statements that the Courts have held frivolous, after his
testimony was completed.The Tax Court fined Patriot $750 for frivolous penalties
under IRC 6673 (a) (1), which only provides for penalties for improper pleadings.
Petitioner could find no published decisions on verbal statements during Tax Court
proceedings. Therefore, this fine should be rescinded.The Internal Revenue Code
is beyond comprehension by the majority of the people. The middle income working
people are simply unable to hire high-priced council, therefore the IRS auditors
and lawyers are able to brow-beat middle income taxpayers, take advantage of them
and in effect steal their hard earned monies. In this case Patriot was too old to
protect his interests and the District Council was able to make maximum use of the
overwhelming advantages of the government. Judge Wells in general was considerate
and fair-minded to Patriot and the other pro-se litigants but on this matter allowed
himself to be bullied by an aggressive IRS lawyer.Tax Court also fined partially
senile Patriot under IRC 6651 for failure to file and did not relieve Patriot of
the addition to tax even though he demonstrated the failure was due to reasonable
cause and not due to willful neglect.Patriot should not be penalized for failure
to file because for the years in question he was not required to file, but unfortunately
was not able to prove that in tax court. Additionally for the years in question
Patriot was aged, not mentally agile and without any of his papers due to a house
fire.
Regardless of Patriot’s political opinions, he did not raise any Constitutional
or “tax protestor” arguments concerning his reasons for not filing his returns.
Not one word of “tax protestor arguments” was raised in Patriot’s pleadings. Patriot
only mentioned such issues briefly after his testimony while returning to his seat
after being bullied by District Council. However IRC §6673 is not valid for actions
such as Patriot’s.
Through numerous letters to the IRS Patriot pleaded and begged for years to settle
this case. At trial the Administrative Law Judge could easily see that Patriots
was aged, feeble, confused and unable to represent himself. The amount of money
involved in the case is not enough to hire an attorney even if Patriot had the money
to retain council, which he does not.
All of Patriot’s pleadings in this case have been in the proper format and have
been respectful to the honor and dignity of these courts. The Tax Court seemed concerned
about Patriot’s political opinions, however these were hold opinions and to join
political organizations.
Patriot in entitled to deductions on account of large church donations, unreimbursed
business expenses, etc. However the lower Court did not allow any of this because
Patriot’s paperwork was destroyed in a house fire and he was too aged and confused
to present his facts clearly.
In conclusion the imposition of sanctions under IRC 6673 should be revoked and the
other relief sought by petitioner should be granted.
___________________________ Date: October 18, 2006
Henry R. Patriot, Petitioner, Pro Se
Greenville, SC 29615
Certificate of Service: I hereby certify that on this date I sent properly
in a postage paid wrapper a copy of this pleading to:
Eileen J. O’Connor, ESQ
U.S. Department of Justice
Tax Division
P.O. Box 502
Washington, D.C. 20044
Donald L. Korb, ESQ
Internal Revenue Service
1111 Constituion Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20224
___________________________ Date: October 18, 2006
Henry R. Patriot, Petitioner, Pro Se
Greenville, SC 29615