Q733 Transcript

(Side 2)

Jones: Good morning. Good midday news. Compromise is now the name of the game in the Korean scandal investigations. Just weeks ago, Congress was challenging President [Jimmy] Carter on the issue of aid to the fascist regime of South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee. A House resolution signed by one of the members would cut off all aid to the Park regime, unless former ambassador to the US, Dim Kung-cho [phonetic] and other high Korean officials testified before congressional committees. The resolution now lies dormant. In its place a letter has been drawn up to have Park consider whether high Korean officials should testify through intermediaries, in the interest of Korean-American unity and cooperation. Indeed, unity and cooperation with fascism. That would be uh, appropriate words. That’s the quote exactly, of the US government. Even Representative Al E. Ertel, Democrat, Pennsylvania, the sponsor of the resolution, has mutually agreed to sponsor the letter and permit the resolution to die a natural death.

In other developments, the various congressional investigations into South Korean influence-buying are dying of lethargy, while the campaign to jail Congressman [Charles] Diggs, black founder of the Black Caucus, and the entire United States Black Caucus in Congress and the chairman of the Subcommittee on African Affairs, the (unintelligible word) grind on, the grist is there. To crucify. As five more felony counts have come up against the man, and uh, over 200 people involved in one way or another of influence-buying, those congressmen in receipt of such funds and payoffs, we find that the entire quest for justice is dying of lethargy, because it against those of capital. Sooner or later, they will get it. As two left Congress, they have been singled out, one conservative and one liberal, they have been singled out for special treatment. But no other congressman in the United States except Adam Clayton Powell, black, a man of great principle in struggling for working class rights and particularly black people’s rights, was shot down and destroyed in Congress, and impeached, as you know. Denied his office, the black taxpayers and minority brown tie– taxpayers of New York and many whites returned Adam Clayton Powell many years ago to Congress, only to have it denied that he would be able to hold his seat. Taxation without representation is against the law, but for nearly a year, the people of Harlem had no representation, because he was black.

Before congressional investigations and two court cases (tape edit), (unintelligible word) the Korean Central Intelligence Agency payoffs to all this vast number of Co– US Congress, the press was waiting for a number of important exposés, but hardly a word has been heard from three of the congressional committee investigations recently, and the press is taking no initiative. The press only loves to show its colors when it’s crucifying sho– socialists and black people, who even remotely work for liberation of black people in the most elementary way. The one committee that seems to have a spark of life is the House Subcommittee for International Organizations, headed by Donald Fraser, Democrat, Minnesota, but even its revelations are continuations of former exposures and don’t break any new ground. Anyway, Donald Fraser was reminded that he had a tax inquiry by the Internal Revenue Services, so I’m sure he will bring his House Subcommittee for International Organizations into line.

But the committee’s latest exposé was that Park paid four hundred thousand dollars to the Democratic presidential campaign in 1968, and a lesser six-figure amount to the Republicans. The committee also revealed that US intelligence reports include that dictator Park personally set up an influence-buying operation in the millions in the US, of several 1970 meetings at the mansion that he owns in Seoul, Korea in the dictatorship of the dreaded regime that was set up and divided the Korean people in a monstrous fashion, when all of them wanted unification under the Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea, which indeed is the government of the people, truly socialist (microphone clicks off and on) communist democracy. It is reported that the US taped those meetings and have evidence of all the officials that received the millions and millions of dollars of payoffs, but nothing will be done.

How would the FBI find itself this afternoon over in Italy, trying to find Prime Minister [Aldo] Moro. Though there is (microphone clicks off and on) American involvement, the statement of the FBI was that we cannot stand this kind of terrorism. So the FBI has sent over its crack force, to try to break the case of Prime Minister Moro, one of the most dreaded capitalists who has been kidnapped by the people’s Red Army, the people’s Red Brigade, rather. The Red Army is in Japan. The Red Brigade in Italy have kidnapped him after first abducting him after murdering five of his crack secret police guards, who were in a contingency of the National Police that’ve been guilty of torture. So all the more criminals against the people. Nonetheless, the sentence has been set. Prime Minister Moro will be executed, prime minister of Italy, one of Italy’s greatest capitalists, and no capitalist voice is coming to his rescue, investigative agencies are trying to do something only because they’re afraid, said the FBI, that kidnappings will begin on a large scale in the United States, in that there has been some 60 kidnappings for political reasons and ransom reasons in Europe in the past months. Nonetheless, the Italian government refuses– all the capitalist ruling class refuse to grant one of the demands of the people’s Red Brigade. All they ask is the dropping of political charges that plan to put socialist youth in jail for 20 years minimum in Turin, Italy, and the release of political hostages that’ve been held without trial in the Italian jails, due to the sell-out of the Eurocommunist, who have actually been infiltrated and now posture capitalism throughout the Italy– the Italian area, the seat of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church, the Vatican is placed in Italy. You need to look on your map and locate– you need to get these maps totally completed.

Remember, the production must be stepped up, or we will be brought up for discussion in the Peoples Forum tonight, and Learning Crew.

(Tape turns off for several moments)

Woman: Okay.

Jones: Stung by these disclosures, the Park fascist regime for the first time took official notice of the Koreagate revelations. It denied all charges. The committee also once again found that the Rev. [Sun Myung] Moon’s Unification church was a KCIA front, a front for the CIA. Rev. Moon’s been kicked around a little, but he’s of the right political stripe, a fascist. If he didn’t have a race problem, nothing would’ve ever been said, because even fascists war amongst themselves over such matters as race. They’re very noted for their racism.

And as I said, was Prime Minister Moro of Italy, when one of their own who has served them well even get caught, they don’t come to the rescue. There is no assurances, no protection in capitalism, whereas in a socialist community, cooperative, you have a thousand strong, seeing that you get good food, good medicine, and the best of protection. That’s security that capitalists would love to buy. All the bodyguards of Prime Minister Moro, renown re– reactionary capitalist of Italy, could not buy him protection. Now he faces a trial, and will be executed at some place in Italy, unless the political demands of the Red Brigade are met. We do not in any way support acts of terror, but the acts of terror that are going on against working class people are the most inhu– inhumane kind. Literally hundreds of workers, socialist activists, have been tortured by the dreaded National Police of Italy. Torture is the order of the day. In fact, there’s been a road of clearance made for the F– FBI to involve themselves in any techniques to, it said, get information from those that’re already arrested of socialist activists. Imagine, the USA sending the FBI, the ruling class interest, when there is no American involvement, no kidnapping, no international lines have been crossed, the FBI is a domestic agency in the USA, and absolutely it is illegal and criminal, against the law, against the Constitution of the United States, for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to go to Italy to involve itself in the study of a crime, unless Americans are involved that’ve crossed the international lines. But the FBI says openly, they are afraid that kidnappings will begin to ravage USA, so they’re going to try to find Prime Minister Moro. It looks dim at this time, and his execution by the people in a people’s court is almost hours away.

As you know, the FBI director, William Webster, is a racist, a judge that handed down the dreaded decision against Wounded Knee. Every decision he ever made in the courts were reactionary. He is also, by Senate revelations– of US Senate revelations, members of four racist, elitist clubs and two sexist clubs, but he refused, when the FBI Director William Webster was being considered for appointment after being appointed by the president and his confirmation being sought by the Senate, he refused to drop his membership in these racist organizations in St. Louis. Nonetheless, FBI director was approved by the Senate, William Webster, another fascist renegade. (Pause)

This is a bit of the top of the news. We have some action in Zaire, because there’s a continual funding, stream of funding from US imperialism, attempting to do uh, harm to the rest of Africa, to let very, very reactionist regime of Mobutu [Sese Seko]– uh, uh, a reactionary regime that actually murdered Patrice Lumumba, one of the great black activists who was drug for miles until he was dead, through the intrigue of US imperialism and its lackeys. Nonetheless, our Patrice Lumumba has still not been avenged. The great black leader, Lumumba Moscow University, a university by the name of Lumumba University that gives free scholarships, that’ve been some fifty offered to uh, people in the community in the Soviet Union. The Lumumba University, renown university, the only university in the world named after the famed leader of the Congo, or Zaire, who should’ve been the rightful people’s leader, but he was murdered by a CIA plot. And Mobutu’s receiving a great deal of aid. It is undoubtedly, according to even The Washington Post, an effort to funnel mercenary operations and guerilla operations into Angola and to try to cause difficulties in Zimbabwe, to divide the Patriotic Front. It will not succeed. Africa will be free. Impossible to believe anything else. Africa will be free.

The United Transportation Union, the largest railway union in the United States, signed a contract for workers of the Milwaukee Railroad on the railway system that may set a pattern for negotiations covering 188,000 rail workers internationally– or nationally. The union leadership acceded to company demands that freight train crews be reduced from four to two workers, eliminating the safety job performed by one brakeman. The eliminations will be accomplished by attrition, and remaining workers will get no more pay increases for the increased work. How apathetic labor is in the United States, with thousands of people in the rubber-related industries, of the auto industries such as Firestone Tire Company, today laying off over a thousand more, and thousands have been laid off in the past month in just that field of tire-making alone. Shutdown after shutdown in steel. The union-busting in The Washington Post and The New York Post, and all over the nation. The union scab work– the United Mine Workers, after their 115-day vigilant strike, and no support, except the garment workers, a communist union, small in New York, and their leaders were arrested for conspiracy. The strike was broken with the threat of the dread reactionary Taft-Hartley law, and the president saying he would send troops and arrest all of the hundreds of thousands of US miners. So they went back to work with none of their conditions met.

Bert Lance, President Jimmy Carter’s chief buddy, is still being covered for by the president, involved in further crimes of two point two billion [dollar] fraud, bank-holding company, but he was allowed to settle outside of court, because he is white, and that makes it right. Congressman Diggs, who has denied all charges, whereas Bert Lance uh, conceded to these charges. This is a new set of char– (hiccup) charges. He has been released, and he carries a diplomatic passport, because he is still uh, reactionary, though he did lose his job, and he’s going through a great deal of difficulty, he lost his bank, because capitalists are always after each other in a dog-eat-dog competition. But for the time being, he is serving the interest of the ruling class, the oppressive class that dominates monopoly capitalism in its last stages, the senile stage, as often is referred to in political terms.

Anti-nuke events target military. New nukes. President Carter is mobilizing more nuclear warheads, and there’s great fear even in federal government circles that the nuclear weapons that are being utilized are not safe. They’re orbiting things in space and they expect a matter of days, US scientists and world scientists meeting in the Netherlands have declared that within days, another satellite will crush to earth that could literally destroy a city if its radiation is released. As you remember, just only weeks ago, such a satellite crashed to earth in Canada, and yet to this moment, they do not know how long lasting the radiation damages will be.

Joan Little been ordered back to jail, as you know. New York City– the New York uh, state ordered her extradition, in spite of angry action from some 500 supporters who packed the Brooklyn courtroom, she will be sent back. The extradition order will be carried out the twenty-seventh [of] April, where she will go back to the same jail in North Carolina, where she was nearly killed and forcibly raped. This is the justice that black women, minority peoples, receive in the United States.

Iranians in DC are in a hunger strike. Some 51 members of the Iranian Students Association, who have their heads covered because their families would be murdered by the fascist regime that we have put in power in that oil-rich country, under the madman, [Reza Pahlavi] the Shah of Iran, are– are starting a hunger strike on the twenty-fifth in solidarity with the hunger strike among political prisoners in Iran. Now, one out of six people in Iran are being held for political reasons and tortured every day and every night.

We have so much to be grateful for, for the privilege of working this land, the opportunity to get people free, the opportunity to extend our free medical services around this 30-mile region, that I cannot see the end of the opportunities of building collectively. I want to ser– see good reports of production so we can award in our Town Forum meeting tonight.

Some 80 students, from 12 years to 14 years, were tortured in the Peoples – call it the Peoples Prison, indeed – in the Tehran area, because their parents had been involved in striking for safety conditions and even minimal li– living conditions. They were bombarded by microwave-type of torture device and the children’s agonizing cries were heard for three miles. That is fascism that we support abroad, and certainly when we need it, because one of our former CIA heads has now gone there to assist in the Shah of Iran’s program for torture. As you know, that was where Elaine Brown ran to, after they found that she was an infiltrator, but she came back, feeling she was safe and immune, only to be charged, after getting information against the Black Panthers, with murder herself. So don’t think that Iran, if it employs torture and the CIA assistance there, and assist torture all throughout Africa and Southeast Asia and the Kampuchea and the Ira– the Vietnam Minh dispute, don’t think that when the time comes, that they will not employ more torture to save their home base of monopoly capitalism.

Thus ends the commentary of the news for the day. All my love. And go full speed for production. We’re having more production reports.

It appears in a late minute of news that [California Governor Jerry] Brown will extradite [Native American activist Dennis] Banks, after giving his promise to the people that it would not be, to begin the opportunity by the courts to indeed free him, but the courts said he must make a decision as to whether he would extradite or not. And it the opinion of the news elements of the left and moderate center in California that Dennis Banks soon will be extradited to what he says will be certain death in South Dakota. We have offered him our assistance, as you know, and we hope that he will indeed respond and recognize the despair and hopelessness for minorities in fascist, imperialist United States. All my love.

(end of part 1)

 

(Part 2)

Attention. Attention, attention. I wanted to discuss a little bit about taxes. The institution that is used to oppress societies of liberation around the world, to emasculate the American economy in favor of the ruling elite, the military-industrial juggernaut. We’re gonna talk about audits. So their accountant might find this interesting, and others dealing with taxes. Anybody in the United States can, and two hundred thousand– more than two million– two hundred thousand– two hundred million taxpayers will be called in this year. But the odds increase with income. A salaried employee making less than ten thousand dollars and taking the standard deduction is almost surely home free. But 14% of those making over fifty thousand dollars can expect an audit, unless they have some special pull, (Pause) and that only lasts as long as a particular administration is in power. Doctors, dentists, lawyers and other self-employed persons with high incomes are prime candidates. (Microphone turns off and on) The Internal Revenue also scans newspapers for stories about people – in other words, to set them up – about lottery winnings or executives awarded with big promotions. The most exhaustive audits challenge the fifty thousand dollars– fifty thousand, rather, returns that IRS computers select at random every two years. These audits are used to construct the computer model that singles out audits for the following two years.

I’m going into taxes, because taxes is the great harassment agency, Internal Revenue is, of all members of the social reform activist and of course, Marxist-Leninist.

What else might trigger an audit? (Microphone turns off and on) Faulty arithmetic, forgetting to sign the return, claiming deductions above the IRS norm for such items as travel, entertainment, charitable contributions, and medical care. Delay– asking for delays in your returns. Must take note of that. An angry neighbor, enemies because of your ideas religiously or politically. Ex-lover or disgruntled employee might blow the whistle, simply out of spite.

Sign the return is one way to avoid an audit. If you fail to sign a return, it’s automatic. Make sure the math checks, and files before the deadline. The deadline is important. To ask for extensions always usually guarantees an audit. Try not to be a wise guy with your deductions, says New York accountant Samuel Scherer [phonetic]. If you’re lying, you’re asking for an examination, adds Samuel A. Dikeman, professor of tax law at New York’s Baruch College. Some people want to be very cautious, so they attach all kinds of papers to their returns, explaining why they didn’t include this or that. It’s those explanations that tend to raise eyebrows. I’ve had agents tell me just because someone attached an explanation, they were forced to question it. (Microphone turns off and on)

Is the Internal Revenue system in the US-fascist country foolproof? No. The tax laws are enormously complicated, and the Internal Revenue Service does not have the manpower to do a complete job of policing. There are maybe 82 million taxpayers, approximately, said the supervisorial official in– of the IRS in the Midwest, and uh, some ninety percent of them are honest. But the percentage that are cheating still adds up to several million, some three million, six hundred forty thousand, and there are only 25,000 people in IRS to tax– to do tax auditing. As a result, many tax consultants advise their clients to be aggressive in filing their returns and take questionable deductions rather than not.

One IRS official says the consultants have a point. The fact is that we audit such a small percentage of returns that it’s probably not bad advice, he says. If I were on the outside, I would take chances. In theory, the Internal Revenue computers can match up the Social Security numbers on W-2 forms, bank interest reports, and individual returns. But agents confided to Newsweek business section editor that this is rarely done with any precision at all. (Microphone turns off and on) Obviously, he should be armed with every scrap of supporting evidence he can gather. Cancelled checks, tax receipts, a diary of his business expenses and the like.

But perhaps as important, he should not go in with a chip on his shoulder. Most people I know who are in bad trouble with the Internal Revenue Service were either abusive or uncooperative with their agent, says accountant Nicholas Schenara [phonetic] of New York. But if the taxpayers feels he has a case, he should ke– keep pursuing it up, don’t give in to their demands. The IRS chain of command should be pursued. In many instances, auditing agents are green behind the ears and inexperienced, and a few tend to be overly rigid. Their superiors are more experienced and often more realistic, and don’t want to take on cases.

Does the IRS hold grudges? (unintelligible word) the IRS – Internal Revenue department – insists not, but individual agents do admit that there are over-zealous and sometimes tax rebels who have challenged the IRS and those who are politically unacceptable – of course, that means socialists and communists – they have been subject to– subjected to punitive audits years down, some as late as ten years later. And I can tell that for a fact, as our church went through it. Some 70 of us were audited for signing a peace petition and demanding that a peace advocate be released from jail, where he was being beaten to death practically with a rubber hose in Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati, Ohio federal judge turned it over to IRS, and all of– some 70 of our members were brought in one after another for audit, until Rheaviana Beam dumped a couple of bushels of her tax receipts on the desk and said, now, you want my information? You sort it out for yourself. And immediately, then all of our tax inquiry stopped.

Sometimes a deduction greater than the norm will trigger an audit every year, even though it’s fully substantiated each time. (Microphone turns off and on) The question to the Newsweek magazine, does any Internal Revenue auditors have a quota. Not (unintelligible word) supposed to, but as che– che– several former IRS agents, who are now private tax consultants point out, a top scoring record does improve an agent’s chances for advancement. If an auditor does not reveal errors when he goes out on ten cases and doesn’t bring anything back, says the tax IRS officials who are now in private business, his superior is going to think something is wrong with him, and fire him or retard his progress up the ladder of the dreaded arm of fascist repression, Internal Revenue system.

How deeply do IRS auditors dig into their search for unreported income? If the stakes are high enough, they can be as tenacious, stick-to-itive as bulldogs. A recent case involved a salesman who kept a diary of alleged business meals in which he noted incidentally that he ate only kosher or Jewish food. But the revenue agent, obviously prejudiced, checked back through the diary entries for September, and found one claiming the salesman had entertained a client on Yom Kippur, the holiest of (draws out word) all Jewish holy holidays. The salesman then had to pay a substantial penalty, in addition to the taxes he owed. (Microphone turns off and on)

(Tape edit)

(End of Side 2)

 

(Side 1)

Jones: – with society. (unintelligible word) In order to be fixes, obviously it happens all the time, and there are occasional cases of many dishonest agents who are caught taking bribes. But a taxpayer who was caught trying to bribe an IRS agent can go to jail for as long as five years and pay a ten thousand dollar fine. To guard against any hanky-panky, Internal Revenue Service agents are now prohibited from even having lunch with a client at the client’s expense, supposedly. Unless of course he’s involved with supporting KCIA and South Korea. Again, politics speaks in all of these matters.

How does the IRS conclude that non-compliance amounts to criminal fraud? Now this is an important point. The Internal Revenue Service maintains that an honest mistake can never be fraud. They maintain that an honest mistake can never be fraud. But the auditor’s manual lists more than fifty criteria that could lead to criminal fraud charges. These include the omission of entire sources of income, an unexplained increase in net worth, or keeping two sets of books. It’s a judgment call. If the auditing agent of IRS – the dreaded arm of oppression in the United States and harassment – (Pause) if the auditing agent uncovers such (unintelligible word, sounds like “batches”) of fraud, he turns the case over to the IRS Intelligence Division for investigation. Many such cases are settled without prosecution, but taxpayers– taxpayers found guilty of fraud are subject to substantial penalties and at worse, they will go to jail (Microphone clicks off and on)

What will happen to the nearly two and a half million Americans who are undergoing audit in this year of 1978? One out of four will escape untouched. In fact, about 100,000 will find Uncle Sam owes them money, not the other way around. Three out of four will have to come up with their share of an anticipated five billion to six billion dollars in additional tax (unintelligible word) support the warfare state, that’s killing and torturing right this afternoon in South Africa, as several more cases of torture have been brought to light in Zimbabwe and in Zaire, in Angola and Union of South Africa by the military assistance given by the USA and the CIA. Well, they have to come up with six billion dollar additional taxes, accrued interest, and criminal penalties. But last year, only one thousand six hundred and forty-one out of the two thousand– two million and a half that were audited were indicted for fraud. One thousand two hundred and twenty-nine copped pleas, 247 were convicted, and 165 went free. In other words, out of two and a half million that were audited, only 165– no rather, 247 went to jail for not paying taxes.

Now we want to discuss (clears throat) an underground economy in United States that has some interest to all of us who want to resist the fascist, elite, monopoly ruling classes. In the government books, 29-year-old Carl C. of Hollywood, California – Newsweek keeps his identity unknown. Of course, he is not a socialist, no doubt. He appears as a part-time actor who supplemented his 1977 unemployment insurance by taking handyman jobs worth two thousand seven hundred dollars. In fact, Carl made 12,000 dollars building sun decks, laying patios, and painting garages. He received most of his payments in cash, and simply did not report the income.

Solomon A. of Chicago, Illinois (Microphone clicks off and on) works in his son’s liquor store for about 10,000 dollars a year in cash. It’s been noted by left wing press that these people owe their ostensibly-hidden layer– their names that can be figured out by IRS, and the IRS comes after them, so it doesn’t pay to talk to the press about your internal revenue. (Sniffs) Neither he nor his son – Solomon A., that is, of Chicago, who works in his son’s liquor store for about 10,000 dollars a year in cash – neither he nor his son ever mentions the arrangement to the government, an off-the-books salary added to his monthly Social Security checks enables a 70-yea-old grandfather to live in reasonably comfortable style in the terribly high cost-of-living area, complete with a three-month vacation, if he’s lucky, every two years in Florida.

Jack D. is an antiques dealer in New York City. Customers who are willing to pay him in cash get insignificant discounts on his merchandise, (Microphone clicks off and on) and Jack records on his books only part of what they actually pay. The result: lower income taxes, plus a safety deposit box chock full of ready cash.

Carl, Solomon, and Jack have slid into the underground economy, the vast and murky netherworld of jobs, services and business transactions that never show up in official records. Some of their colleagues there are prostitutes, drug dealers, bank robbers, illegal aliens who do– do not want their activities publicly recorded for obvious reasons. But hundreds of thousands more are otherwise law-abiding Americans who simply want to avoid paying taxes, and either deliberately understate the amount of their incomes or fail to report them all, out of disrespect for the US economic system. Either this conservative view of it or a pro-left view of it, the economy is wasting the money. Some experts think that the underground economy may be growing even faster than the legal one. Resentful of high taxes and wrung by inflation, an economy that is seemingly about to go broke, more and more Americans may be looking for – and finding – ingenious ways to beat the system. “Once that involuntary [voluntary] compliance breaks down,” warns Mort Levy, regional supervisor of California of the IRS [head of San Francisco’s Accountants for the Public Interest], “it’s the beginning of the end of the system.” Well, let’s hope so.

By definition, (Microphone clicks off and on) the real dimensions of the subterranean economy – the underground economy – are immeasurable. But one economist at the City University of New York has reached an alarming estimate that has caused widespread controversy. Professor Peter Gutmann of the Baruch– Baruch College calculates that the income generated by the underground economy in 1977 that’s operating illegally added up to 195 billion dollars, about 10% of the acknowledged gross national product. Had taxes been collected on that some, uh, Gutmann estimates, tax expert, that might nearly have eradicated the forty-eight dol– 48 billion US budget deficit. If hidden employment could have been tabulated in official labor statistics, he suggest the nation’s 6.4% unemployment rate would have been reduced, and since much of the underground economy flourishes in the poor, urban ghettoes, says Gutman, there are probably fewer American families living in poverty than the official statistics indicate. (Microphone clicks off and on) Tax experts like Gutman arrive at the estimates by comparing the amount of available cash, the only currency the underground economy can use, to US checking deposits. In recent years, he observes, there has been a sharp increase in the relative amount of cash in circulation, to an astonishing current total of almost 400 dollars for every man, woman and child in this country, which does not go far with the increased inflation and cost of living. And he attributes that increase to the growth of underground illegal business.

Many experts think this formula is a little simplistic. It does not, for example, take into account the large number of US dollars that are hoarded abroad. Nor does it allow for the fact that some illegally-generated income inevitably finds its way back into the legal economy, and thence onto the tax ledgers. But even the most conservative estimates put the amount of money involved in the underground illegal US economy well into the billions, enoughto wipe out the national debt. The Internal Revenue Sol– Service itself calculates the income that never gets taxed at a rock-bottom minimum of 45 billion dollars a year, and the loss of federal revenues at ten billion dollars or more each year. (Microphone clicks off and on)

[Editor’s note: See summary for explanation of red type.] According to the IRS’ best data, the single biggest tax evasion is the failure of individuals and corporations to report 18 billion dollars a year in bank interest and stock dividends. Probably as much as 12 billion dollars in outside income, from moonlawn– moonlighting jobs necessary to keep people alive in America today or such unrecorded earnings as taxi drivers tips, is similarly left off the returns. The biggest area of noncompliance involve waiters, maids, doctors who are the most criminal of all, small shop keepers and businessmen, workmen and independent craftsmen like plumbers, says the IRS Commissioner Sheldon Cohen. These are all areas that handle large amounts of small cash payments, and even if checks are given, there’s no record in many cases.

Of particular concern to the tax collectors of US monopoly capitalism are “independent contractors,” from life insurance salesmen and phone solicitors to housewives who give Tupperware parties. All are regularly employed by necessity to maintain even a minimal standard of living in US inflation these days, but none are subject to withholding by the companies that pay them. And if they choose not to repote– report all or part of their earnings, it is extremely difficult for the tax men to track them down.

In January, readers of the Chicago Sun-Times had a rare chance to see just how pervasive the underground, illegal economy can be. Newsweek, January 23. The Chicago Better Government Association, bought a near–Southside bar, which they– a ba– a bar which they na– named the Mirage. The owner of record and the bartenders were all employees of the sponsoring organizations, and in the guise of ordinary entrepreneurs – businesspeople, that is – they set out to document corrupt business in Chicago. An accountant told them that he kept tax accounts for 700 local businesses, and that all but four cheated on their returns. Six hundred and ninety-six che– cheated. He taught them to pay off city inspectors, police and firemen, and to skim 40% off the top of their receipts, keeping special books for the tax man. They were not to keep cash register tapes– they were not to keep any cash register tapes which might give them away. They were not to list the bar’s four part-time employees on the payroll, so that they could avoid paying Social Security and workmen’s compensation taxes for them. The Mirage team contacted ten other local accountants to see what they would advise. All of them [Eight] told them to cheat. All ten of them told them to cheat.

At higher levels, a growing number of executives are rediscovering a grand old way to criminally avoid taxes: the barter system. Some use it to avoid capital gain taxes by claiming that the property they trade away is equal in value to what they get in return with no profit – no profit at all – on either side of the transaction. I know a man who recently exchanged six blocks for a hotel, two Cadillacs and an option on some oil-drilling rights, reports– reports Roy Herberger Jr., Associate Dean of the University of Southern California’s business school. But tension of his action and fear of being caught caused him to have a heart attack and die, but at least he pulled the deal.

Some local businessman have so refined the barter system then it nearly replaces other forms of currency. One Denver club uses credits as its sole medium of ex– exchange. A carpenter who makes six cabinets, for example, earns twelve credits that he might use to pay a member lawyer for a divorce. Since there’s no cash for– or– and no W2 forms, says Denver CPA Jack Anderson, uh, a cost uh, public account– accountant, people feel they don’t have to count it as income. Jack Vitore [Victor], former publisher of San Francisco Magazine, used to trade advertising space for everything from vacations to car rentals. Vitore says he was told there was no need to declare these services, so he never did. Some people say it’s taxable, some say it’s not, he shrugs. He later got into difficulty, in spite of his pro-capitalist position. Such barter arrangements have not been thoroughly tested in court, and like most other aspects of the underground economy, they are not easy for the tax collectors to ferret or dig out for a challenge. If you do it in moderation, they’ll probably never get you, says Herb Kushner, a New York tax attorney.

Some experts worry that growth in the underground economy, the illegal economy, is a serious sign that the US American capitalist system of voluntary tax compliance is in real trouble. Few think there is a real danger that tax evasion will become a national sport, even though it is in the few millions already, as it has in France and Italy, which is almost destroying the economy. By tax evasion, France and Italy is almost destroying its economy. But they do point to flourishing hidden economies in fascist Germany, where thousands of Schwartzarbeiters [black economy workers], illicit workers, never report their incomes, in Sweden, where professionals use an unreported barter system almost as a matter of course, and in the United Kingdom, Great Britain or England, where the fiddle– where the fiddle with the tax rules is now epidemic, like a disease. Like the United States, all three nations were once models of taxpayer compliance, so many suspect that the US economy will reach its downfall by those who are tired of paying taxes and are going in the illegal, underground economy.

Thus ends the report on taxes, USA. We hope that more will cease paying their taxes, as taxes have been used in the tortuous methods to overthrow regimes from Chile to South Africa to Southeast Asia. Bravo to those who could avoid paying taxes.

Much love.

(End of Part 2)

 

(Part 3)

Reader: So, uh, if uh, the (unintelligible word) worked out. So you’d wait (unintelligible word) and wait and wait, and finally, I’d made a phone call, which was a toll call, of course, and every penny counted, as you know. So uh– then he said, well, uh, I don’t think we’re going to use you uh, uh, for the calendars, uh. We uh, uh– There’re certain things that weren’t quite right, but uh, if you’d like to come down again, we could try for some more different angles. And I needed the job so bad, so I went back again, went through the whole thing, and then, you know, I noticed that he was getting very excited. Oh, another one like that, yeah, I want another one like that, oh, beautiful, beautiful, I– he– he just– I mean, uh, uh, with a little adjustment to (unintelligible word) beautiful, and he’d– and then I thought, oh my God, I’ve been had. He’s taken about five hours of photography, I never got a penny, cost me money, my wardrobe, my– fixing my hair, my bus fare, my phone calls, and so on, and later I saw myself in the magazines. He never (unintelligible word under interruption) me anywhere.

Woman: Ooh.

Reader: And I went to this over and over and over. And they would not hire you, unless they had so-called (unintelligible word, sounds like peschoff), and this was the scam that was going on then. Of course they don’t– can’t get away with that anymore. But oh, the way we– we used to get had. Never got paid for anything. And then you wondered, how you couldn’t get a job. Well, everybody was using you back and forth. You know– I– it was the same thing in club days, where I used to be a dancer, you see. And uh– oh, but we– you know, you have to come in to try you out, try you out. Then I found out that we had a whole bunch of girls were being tried out, only on Friday and Saturday nights. And then the co– proprietor of the club said– oh, he said, you’re such darlings, you girls are so wonderful, he said, oh, I wish we could afford to hire you. And then I thought, we weren’t going to be hired anyway. What’s all this? The guy was picking up money to bring in all of us girls down to do our numbers, like an (unintelligible word), you know. (Pause)

Woman: Laughs.

Reader: And he was using our costumes, our time, our money, and it– the guy would get all the money, and we would be brought home and say, well, uh, if they like you, they’ll– they might hire you, but I’ll let you know. You never heard from them again. This went on for months. Couldn’t get a job. (Pause) And it would bring the house down, we were so good. There was a tumbler, you know, she was gorgeous, and I would– I did uh, you know, Oriental dancing, and– Nothing strip or anything like that, you know, it’s strictly beautiful stuff. I finally gave up on American people. I said you’re all a bunch of predatory scams.

General laughter.

Woman: – a trip to the little girls’ room.

(Low conversation)

Woman: How many more do we have to go?

(Low conversation for several moments)

Woman: Well, I have to check that. I don’t see how it could be anything else. Just couldn’t be anything else. Well– See, I did this in Joan’s class. I don’t know– I did it once before and just–

(Microphone moves)

(unintelligible sentence)

Reader: Excellent. Excellent. Well, you’ve got your job. (Laughs) You know, I mean, uh, let’s– let’s break it down more specifically. Rate (unintelligible word) part of the fortune, her health, (pause) her work potentials, (Pause) her– her luck, part of fortune, you know, really. And the aspect was– what was that?

Woman: (unintelligible word) Mercury.

Reader: Oh, (same unintelligible word) Mercury. Beautiful. Now Mercury is an important planet to you, because you’re a Gemini, and (unintelligible word) a dispositor of her sun, her Venus, and Mer– uh, and uh, north note. So it was for the better that you sh– (unintelligible word). Trying. Part of this for trying. It’s very good for your well-being to have made the (unintelligible word). (Pause) Okay.

(unintelligible sentence)

Reader: Um-hmm [Yes].

(unintelligible word) to Mercury, (unintelligible)

Reader: Um-hmm. Um-hmm. Well, it’s a minor aspect, but it’s a very nice one. (Pause) Venus has to do with possessions, with cultural advantages, with friends, so there were new friends to be made, (Pause) and uh, an expansion of your communication ability, you know, Mercury. For sure it brought you a whole new culture, (Pause) if you can call our way of life a culture, I guess it is. (Laughs) Well, plastics and hamburgers, and, you know, (unintelligible word) culture.

Woman: Vatex Mars (unintelligible) called his son.

Reader: Vatex Mars (unintelligible) son. Well, it’s a mild aspect, but it gives energy, it gives initiative, (unintelligible word) (Pause)

(low reply)

Reader: Oh, ab– also activity.

(low reply)

Woman: Doesn’t Mars have to do with ego also, as well as the sun?

Reader: Well, yeah, it has a lot to do with the ego in the Aries sense, in the first house sense of (unintelligible name), and it’s a starting point.

Woman: If it’s in the first–

Reader: Yeah. See, the– the– the me of the sun is more quiescent, and the Mars me starts out to do something, it’s the fool in the tower card you’re (unintelligible word). It pulls off with its foot hanging over a cliff. (Laughs)

Woman: Okay, Vatex and Mars–

(low conversation)

Reader: Uh. That’s serious adjustment. (Pause) Your moon is in the fifth, so your whole creative life uh, went through uh, great changes. (Pause) You have to learn how to do things differently. Mars is doing where the pot is boiling. (unintelligible word) You know, behaving. And there were just new ways of– of approaching things. Also friends. You have to make friends, (unintelligible word). (Pause) Okay?

Woman: Okay, Vatex Mars (unintelligible)

Reader: Vatex Mars coordinate with Lucinda. All right. It– it stimulated your initiative tremendously. (Pause) Mars square means, you have got to do something about something. (Pause)

(low conversation)

Woman: Vatex Jupiter (unintelligible word) angel– You have to–

Woman: All right. Uh– Laura [Efrein], I need you (unintelligible word)

(unintelligible exchanges)

Woman: (unintelligible) with the other one, didn’t it? (pause) It has to do with your emotional feelings. You were lost.

(unintelligible exchanges)

Woman: Vatex Jupiter– Natal Neptune in the first had to do with her– herself. (unintelligible)

Reader: Um-hmm. Um-hmm. Well, also, I– I must say, that (stumbles over words) she was eluded, also. There were many illusions you eventually had to overcome. I’m sure.

(unintelligible exchanges)

Reader: Sure. Neptune. You know. Sure. All the illusions you have–

(unintelligible exchanges)

Woman: And Jupiter (unintelligible word), Jupiter’s (unintelligible)

Reader: (unintelligible beginning) Yeah, well, that’s the cost, expenditure, financially– financial–

(unintelligible exchanges)

Reader: (Pause) Uh, we have to take the houses in Mars (unintelligible word) It’s a half aspect.

(unintelligible question)

Reader: Well, it uh– Saturn rules for sixth, you know, mainly, and that’s what you have to refer to the sixth for– for planetary interpretations. So I think that the health and the challenges, and also the work, the toughness of getting a job–

Woman: Oh, this is where that testing–

Reader: Also, you know– in Mars, also, in her case, being in the ninth, it was also beliefs and the faith and uh, (Pause) philosophy and so on, it– You had to go through changes, challenges. (Pause) Trials. I would say that it– Saturn and Mars is trials and tribulations.

(unintelligible exchanges)

Woman: Challenges your thinking.

Reader: Um-hmm. That’s what I meant by the beliefs and the spiritual, philosophy–

(unintelligible exchanges)

Woman: –being in a new country at the same time.

Woman: Right.

Woman: Did he– did he come to (unintelligible word) specific employment we have here?

Woman: He was hired in Holland. They came over. (unintelligible) They looked all over for (unintelligible), you know, they looked all over and–

Reader: With a– a Dutch company, or what?

(unintelligible)

Reader: Oh. Why did they want Dutchmen?

Woman: They wanted Dutchmen, Englishmen, anyone who (unintelligible under Reader)–

Reader: Oh, I see–

Woman: –because these were people who, you know, high education, they all had, (unintelligible word) doctor or they had a master’s degree. They– They (unintelligible word) didn’t have to pay them as much.

Reader: Oh. That’s why.

Woman: –as they paid the Americans.

Reader: There the Americans go again. (unintelligible under interruption) Europeans and Orientals. (laughs)

Woman: They’re still doing it.

Reader: I know they are. I had a call the other day from a man–

Woman: –They’re already also getting back at us.

Reader: You better believe it (Laughs) Yeah, they’re buying up the world. No kidding. They own Wilshire Boulevard. Did you know that?

Woman: No.

Reader: Most Americans don’t.

Woman: Japanese own Wilshire Boulevard.

(unintelligible sentence)

Woman: If they keep it up, they’ll own (unintelligible)

Reader: They own Brazil already.

(unintelligible exchanges)

Reader: (unintelligible word) Venus. Oh yeah, that’s a nice aspect. You had friends that– that came along, and they helped you. There were opportunities that opened up and uh– you know, your Venus is in the eleventh house of friends. You always gotta make friends.

(unintelligible exchanges)

Reader: Again, you know, more of the same. If the– your Mercury is in the eleventh, the circumstances were conducive, yeah, to communication and uh, expansion of your consciousness, if uh, (unintelligible)

(low exchanges)

Reader: Excellent. Excellent.

(low exchanges)

Reader: Ah. Then lots of activities. Lots of activities. A whole bunch of doing– doing things. (Pause) Doing this, doing that, a lot of doing.

(unintelligible exchanges)

Reader: (unintelligible word) Yeah. She did, at the same time. Which is more of same, you know.

(low exchanges)

Reader: Oh, would you repeat that please?

(low reply)

Reader: I see, all right–

(unintelligible exchanges)

Reader: That’s better. That’s better. (Pause) Uh– It’s in the kitchen, honey. Uh– Fifth cusp trying natal Neptune. Well, that was social activities, and also an opening up of creative avenues, uh, whereas some of your illusion–

(End of side 1)