Instructions for Pocket Summons Case
By RBC
The nasty buzzards at the tax service have served upon you a piece of paper entitled “Summons” form number ___. They order you, a free born American citizen, to appear before an administrative agency to answer questions and surrender your private personal papers.
When the bank robber robs the bank on his way out of towns, does he stop by the Sherriff’s office and produce the loot? Of course not. Why not? Because the bank robber and other hoodlums and thieves have protections and guarantees of the bill of rights including the privilege against self incrimination.
The question is: do you, an honest law-abiding American citizen also have the “right to remain salient” and other protections of the bill of rights. Of course you do. You have the right to not answer questions or produce anything that administrative bodies, state federal or local. This is explained more in Clarkson’s introductory video.
Therefore, when you meet with the tax agents in the administrative branch of government, you can exercise your constitutional right not to give evidence against yourself. However the Judicial branch has a different set of powers, one of which is the power to compel. By the word “power”, I mean the ability to force you to d o something under threat of punishment. For not carrying out judicial orders, the Judges can punish you, sometimes severely.
The IRS personal summons, generally referred to as The Pocket Summons, in and of itself, has no power. However, it sometimes leads to a court involvement, which can be a serious problem.
II The Four Stages
The Pocket Summons Case usually involves four steps:
The first appearance before the agent.
The first appearance before the Judge on a Show Cause Order.
The second appearance before the agent.
The second appearance before the Judge on a serious Show Cause Order.
The fourth step, which is the second appearance before the Court, is for a rule to show cause for you to explain why you should not be found in contempt of court and jailed. This is a potentially deadly pit fall which must be handled in our standard manner. However, this is fairly easy and the outcome is certain.
The first three stages are really insignificant, which many people skip. However, we strongly recommend against this, because we advocate strict adherence to the laws and because these first three appearances set the stage for victory for the fourth.
III Instructions for each step
The initial appearance before the agent.
Attend with a tape recorder and/or Court Reporter, privacy act questionnaire, two witnesses, a representative that the IRS will reject, etc...
Make your buddy a Court Reporter and another one, a representative. The IRS will refuse this and your fight begins. This is explained more in Clarkson’s Video/DVD Audit Procedure I ($30).
You should notify the IRS ten days in advance if you are going to have a tape recorder and/or Court Reporter.
You have a right to remain silent, or actually not to self incriminate yourself. However, you must identify yourself, which means you answer questions pertaining to your name, age and address and may include your occupation and education level.
Before that you can make the agent identify himself. Under Federal Law, Federal Officials have no authority until they identify themselves. Make the agent produce his identification, preferably his “pocket commission” or large black wallet with a white, complete ID card. You are entitled to read this in its entirety.
Try the privacy act questionnaire. Under conferences in the Audit Procedure section of this website. Give it to the agents and insist that they comply. The law requires them to fulfill this obligation, and they know it.
Then you can ask them the questions they must answer, including
1) Identify themselves with their title and a description of their job functions.
2) Ask them whether the information against furnished by you can be used against you in a criminal case. They will answer “yes” to this.
3) Whether the Internal Revenue manual tells the agent that you have the right to take the fifth at summons meeting.
4) Ask him if the IRS can grant you immunity. He will answer “no” to that.
5) Then ask him if the IRS can request the Dept of Justice to grant you immunity. The correct answer is “yes” but the agent may not know it.
Amendment five of the US Constitution provides: “No person shall be… compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” This means that if the answer would be information against you in a prosecution, you cannot be compelled to talk or possibly to produce records.
In order to exercise your rights, you must think about the ramifications of your answers before giving them. If you think that possibly-somehow-maybe-potentially your information may later be used against you, you have a right under our Constitution to refuse to answer.
You can answer “fifth amendment”, “self incrimination”, “objection - self incrimination”, “objection- fifth amendment”, or anything that resembles the Fifth Amendment. The lawyers and fancy people would say, “I respectfully decline to answer under the terms and grounds of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution….”
The IRS summons form orders you to bring your bank records, canceled checks, bank statements, etc… at the meeting the agent will ask you to turn them over. The employees of the executive branch can not make you do anything. However, we strongly recommend that you put records for each year in a package, properly labeled and take them to the meeting. Show the package, but not the contents, to the agent.