ARTHUR FARNSWORTH, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE AND TREASURER FOR THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF PENNSYLVANIA INDICTED FOR ALLEGED TAX EVASION

Just days after losing his bid for Congress, Arthur Farnsworth, Treasurer for the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party, was arrested and charged with fully attempting to evade federal income taxes. "The government has asked that bail be denied; stating as grounds that Mr. Farnsworth is a 'flight risk'." A preliminary hearing is set for Monday, November 8th.

"He is certainly not the kind of person you would expect to see having trouble with the law," stated David Jahn, State Chair for the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania. In addition to serving as Treasurer, the politically active and religiously devout Mr. Farnsworth is involved in many local activities, including his community church, where he serves as the choir director and organist.

For years, Mr. Farnsworth has publicly expressed that the federal government has been deliberately misapplying the income tax laws and has been lying to the American people. On his web site, www.enter.net/~arthurlf, Mr. Farnsworth has equated the perception that everyone has to pay income taxes with the one-time commonly held, but now defunct belief that the world is flat. Mr. Farnsworth asks, "Do you file and pay because everyone else does, or because at some point you have been shown the law that requires you to?"

Although not specifically mentioned by Mr. Farnsworth, a growing number of tax experts, including attorneys, accountants, a former federal prosecutor, and multiple former employees of the IRS have stated that the income tax laws show that most American citizens do not have any liability for the income tax. The legislative history of the tax code also shows many suspicious changes made to important sections of law. A documentary has recently been released en masse detailing these disturbing changes along with interviews from many of the above listed experts. It is available online at www.861.info.

In further attempts to clarify this issue, thousands of Americans have also written letters to government officials asking questions about which specific sections of law are to be used to determine what, if anything, they owe. Many of these questions were captured in hours of sworn testimony and can be found on the following web sites: www.givemeliberty.org, www.861.info, www.taxableincome.net

Meanwhile, the government continues to attack any citizen or business owner that dares to question the commonly held belief that everyone owes income taxes. Those that do challenge the government are illegally labeled as "tax protesters" and denied due process. A recent example is Dick Simkanin, a business owner convicted of "fully failing to withhold" monies from the people who worked for his company. After two failed attempts by the government to get an indictment and one mistrial, the government"s success in obtaining a conviction against Mr. Simkanin was an apparent embarrassment, as federal judge John McBryd ordered the transcript sealed in an unprecedented attempt to keep the specifics of the case from public view. Instead of establishing a respected precedent, hiding their misconduct behind sealed transcripts has had the adverse effect of convincing those in the tax honesty movement that their suspicions regarding the misapplications of the tax laws are factual.

Ken Evans, former Eastern Vice Chair of the Pennsylvania LP, expressed concern over Mr. Farnsworth's arrest. "I am worried for Art's well being," Evans said, "because I know first hand how corrupt our judicial system has become. My recent refund lawsuit clearly demonstrated that the system stinks to high heaven!"

The crime of "willful evasion of taxes" is based on two presumptions. First, that the Internal Revenue Code makes the individual liable for the income tax and second, that the individual believes that the Internal Revenue Code makes them liable. Both elements are necessary to achieve a conviction according to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It is the hope of the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party that Mr. Farnsworth be afforded due process of law and that his arrest will force our government to finally address the valid questions that he and thousands of other have posed. A just government owes its citizens nothing less.

The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania is offering to facilitate a meeting between representatives of the tax honesty movement and our government so that the questions posed by these experts can be properly addressed. Such a meeting would help resolve decades of legitimate questions by citizens across the country. "It's a pretty simple solution," stated Jahn. "Hiding judicial misconduct behind sealed transcripts hasn't helped. If these tax experts are wrong, it should be a simple matter to correct them. You have to wonder why our government refuses to do it."

The Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in the United States with over 600 officials serving in office throughout the nation. Please visit www.LP.org or www.LPPA.org for more information on the Libertarian Party.

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