Hundreds of thousands of readers of 'Cracking the Code- The Fascinating Truth About Taxation In America' have taken control of their own resources, in accordance with, and respect for, the law. The total amount reclaimed by these good Americans so far is upward of several billion dollars.

A few of these good American men and women-- such as those honored below-- are generous enough to send me the evidence of their victories in upholding the law, for the edification and inspiration of everyone.

Joseph McGarty

JOSEPH HAS SECURED THE RETURN, with interest, of everything subtracted from his paycheck during 2021 under the label, "federal income tax withheld":

Here is the filing by which this refund was secured. (As can be seen, for reasons of his own, Joseph declined to reclaim the amounts of federal income tax withheld under the labels "Social security" and "Medicare" tax.)

 Joseph has also secured the return of everything withheld from him during 2021 and diverted to California:

...by way of this filing.

Joseph White

Joseph has become free of income tax misapplication and wants you to do the same. It's a short, simple message that everyone needs to hear.

Here is the filing by which Joseph secured the victory of which he speaks in this video.

Tyler & Amizero O'Donnell

TYLER & AMIZERO SHARE THEIR LATEST VICTORY, this one with the feds for 2021:

This victory, secured by this filing, is the return of, well, it's hard to say, except to say that it is not everything owed. But this one is short in a most unusual way.

Normally, if the IRS decides to run a short refund scam, it will send out all nominal "federal income tax withheld" and hold back the FICA withholdings, despite the fact that refunding the one is an admission that the others are not owed (per 26 U.S.C. § 3503, subject to the Supreme Court ruling in Rowan Cos. v. United States-- see the NOTE at the top of page 2 in this document). The hope in such cases seems to be that the target of the scam will either not know the law, or will stand down anyway, content to be only partially robbed.

Here, however, the IRS declares itself to be omitting the nominal federal income tax withheld from the refund, and ONLY returning the FICA withholdings (while somehow making a ~$200 math error in the process). Here's how this all played out.

To begin with, Tyler & Amizero received a LTR12C in response to their filing. The LTR asked for verification of the withheld amounts listed in their return (an occasionally-deployed fraud-ish game by which the agency pretends that it has not  been sent W-2s by the payer involved on which all the withheld amounts are verified, in the hope of tricking a filer into sending those forms-- which also contain erroneous "wage" allegations-- to the agency and compromising their filing).

Tyler & Amizero are not fools, though, and promptly sent this sensible response.

Five weeks later, the IRS sent this CP12 notice. On it, the IRS declares that Tyler & Amizero are owed only an $8,232.00 refund, rather than the $12,717.09 claimed. The reason given:

 The form also makes a key admission (even while making an amazing, incomprehensible, and wholly erroneous assertion as to Tyler & Amizero's "taxable income" figure from line 15 of their 1040):

Then the agency follows with a false assertion as to the amount of income tax withheld as reported on line 25d of Tyler & Amizero's 1040, putting down an amount almost $400 more than the nominal income tax withheld reported on Tyler & Amizero's Form 4852 but $238.76 less than the combined FICA withholdings reported, adds a claimed credit, and ends up at the amount sent to the couple a few days earlier:

O, what a tangled web, eh? This one might end up in the 'Every Which Way But Loose' collection...

Anyway, Tyler & Amizero have fired off a sharp and well-educated response to the gibberish. We'll see what happens.

Timothy Bell

Timothy methodically shares his victories in applying the liberating truth and invites all other good Americans to join him in upholding the law. Everyone should listen, and everyone should step up and follow in Timothy's footsteps.

See Timothy's posted victories here and here.

Sheryl Randle

SHERYL CONTRIBUTES A NICE VICTORY-- a complete refund of everything withheld from her during 2020 and given over to the feds against what was eventually determined to be no income tax liability, plus interest to make up for the six month delay before sending Sheryl her money in August of 2022:

Here is the filing by which Sheryl recovered her property.

Karen McFadden

Karen came across 'Cracking the Code- The Fascinating Truth About Taxation In America' and lost her fear of the IRS. Listen to her story!

James W.*

JAMES HAS ALSO SHARED a delayed refund for 2020 from Uncle Sam, this one arriving in June of 2022, and in the form of a notice acknowledging that all withholding (which was nothing but FICA) is an overpayment. Annoyingly, the IRS applied the refund to a purported outstanding balance for a different year:

Here is the filing that produced this complete refund.

*Normally, I no longer bother to post a "victory" for which a complete name is not shared. Such a thing might be a victory in upholding the law, and monetarily, but is clearly not a victory of heart and mind-- the kind that really counts the most. The exception is made here because the refund is entirely of FICA withholdings, which illustrates an important point.

Joel Bliss

Joel has a dog that works for the IRS...  or so it would appear. Let him tell you all about it.

See Joel & Valerie Bliss's posted filing and refund here

Christopher Brenner

CHRISTOPHER  SHARES HIS DEBUT VICTORY-- a complete refund of everything withheld from him during 2021 and given over to Michigan:

Here is the filing that led to this uplifting victory.

Jaroslaw & Emilia Lausz

JAROSLAW & EMILIA share a nice victory in securing respect for the law by the state of New York. These good folks, armed with a complete understanding of the income tax provided by 'Cracking the Code- The Fascinating Truth About Taxation In America', recovered everything withheld from them and given over to the state during 2021 on the false notion that all earnings are "income" subject to tax:

Here is the educated filing by which this victory was invoked.

Christopher Brenner

CHRISTOPHER HAS JUST SECURED his second victory this year. This time it is a substantial-- but only partial-- recovery of property improperly withheld and given over to the feds during 2021:

Annoyingly, Christopher is being made a target for an occasional IRS scam of admitting that nothing taxable was done by the filer, but nonetheless trying to keep part of the money withheld (the portion withheld as FICA surtaxes). This is a flat-out, corrupt defiance of the law by the tax agency.

HERE'S HOW THE SCAM GOES: The agency is pretending that Christopher's 1040 claimed a smaller amount than it really did, and waiting to see if he will demand the rest or just play along with the falsehood and let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak. As seen in the following excerpts from the CP12 Christopher received, the agency admits that he did nothing taxable, received no "income", and owes no tax for 2021:

This welcome and accurate admission is followed, however, by a bald-faced lie about the amount withheld as reported on Christopher's Form 1040, line 25d:

As can be seen on Christopher's 1040 (and the accompanying and supporting Form 4852), the actual amount withheld, and reported on line 25d, is $12,160.00-- an amount certain to also have been reported to the IRS by the party that did the withholding, btw.

The difference between what was actually withheld from Christopher and what the agency acknowledges is the amount withheld as FICA surtaxes (Social security and Medicare taxes). The tax agency proposes to keep this money for no reason whatever.

The IRS appears to be hoping that Christopher is unaware that it is required by law to return those amounts, at 26 U.S.C. § 3503:

Any tax paid under chapter 21 or 22 by a taxpayer with respect to any period with respect to which he is not liable to tax under such chapter shall be credited against the tax, if any, imposed by such other chapter upon the taxpayer, and the balance, if any, shall be refunded.

The agency also appears to be hoping that Christopher won't understand that its admission that Christopher had no "wages" under Chapter 24 of the IRC (an admission expressed not only in the agency's black-and-white statements in the CP12 above, but also by its having returned to Christopher everything withheld from him pursuant to that chapter) is also an admission that Christopher did nothing by which any FICA tax liability can be measured and established. This point is recognized by the US Supreme Court in Rowan Cos. v. United States, 452 US 247 (1981), in which it is held that "wages" under Chapter 24 are the same thing taxed as "wages" under Chapter 21 and 22, meaning that if one hasn't had the former, one cannot have had the latter. (See that all explained in detail here.)

CHRISTOPHER may have to go to a little more trouble to be properly made whole. And the already over-worked federal courts may end up a bit more clogged at everyone else's expense-- all because some bad apple at the IRS wants to play games and try to evade the law. How scandalous.

I wonder if any of the journalists who focus on tax subjects will raise a little noise over this outrageous agency behavior, and if the responsible party will get sanctioned? Both certainly ought to happen.

Kristie Cloin

KRISTIE HAS ALSO JUST SECURED a substantial-- but only partial-- recovery of property improperly withheld and given over to the feds during 2021:

Like Christopher Brenner, whose case is discussed above, Kristie is being made a target for an IRS scam.

As with Christopher, the tax agency is pretending that Kristie's 1040 claimed a smaller amount than it really did, excluding FICA withholding, even while admitting on its own CP12 that she did nothing taxable, received no "income", and owes no tax for 2021:

Kristie, too, may have to do some suing to be made whole. But as in Christopher's case-- at least she starts off with every key fact of the matter having been admitted in her favor by her opponent, and with the law entirely on her side, as well.

Gerald & Vicki Langwell

GERALD & VICKI SHARE THEIR SECOND victory this year-- a complete recovery of everything claimed from the feds of what had been improperly withheld from Gerald and Vicki's earnings in 2021, plus interest:

I'm sorry to say that as in Christopher and Kristie's cases, there's a little fly in this ointment as well. But this time it was filer error, which should quickly enough be resolved by amendment.

As will be seen by examining Gerald & Vicki's return, the amount reported as the total withheld and to be refunded falls short of what was actually withheld. It turns out that in completing the return some docs from 2020 got mixed up with those from 2021, and it was the older year's withholding total that found its way onto the 2021 1040, even while the Form 4852 accompanying the return remained correct.

These things happen.

More interesting is the fact that the IRS actually spent a bit of extra time and attention scrutinizing Gerald & Vicki's filing before choosing-- corruptly, in my opinion-- to let the mistake pass as though unnoticed. This resulted in the issuance of the partial refund w/interest shown above. See this venal behavior documented here.

(In fairness, and to add extra shame to the agency's bad behavior in this case, there are several cases posted on these pages in which the IRS has done the opposite-- catching mistakes made by the filer and graciously correcting them, even though this meant issuing bigger refunds than had been sought.)

Donald Busch

DON SHARES A VICTORY for 2019, securing the return of everything withheld from him and given over to Missouri under his payer's mistaken notion that Don's work was a taxable activity (or that any and all payments, regardless of the nature of the activity with which it is connected, must be reported to some bureaucrat):

Notably, the filing that produced this complete refund, which can be seen here, was prompted by a demand notice from Missouri, issued December 8, 2022. The state probably now wishes it had let sleeping dogs lie...

WELL DONE, Dan!

Myrna Marin

MYRNA IS NEW TO CtC, having joined the community after attending an on-line presentation I gave to a wide-ranging political activist group last November. Myrna wasted no time. She dove headfirst into all the information and then promptly amended old, errant returns and filed pending new ones in the light of the truth about the tax. She has already secured several victories-- here is one of them, from California for 2021:

Here is the filing which secured this complete refund.

WELL DONE, Myrna!!

Rob Martin

ROB SHARES HIS LATEST VICTORY, this one from the feds and concerning 2018:

Rob won this nearly complete refund with this return, but only after fielding this IRS challenge, to which he delivered this response. As will be noted, even though the IRS properly added on more than $3,700 in interest to this refund, the total is short by a thus-far unexplained $5,000. Rob is waiting for documentation that might shed some light on the ding (the request for which might also simply prompt the issuance of the rest of his property...).

However that turns out,

WELL DONE, Rob!

Amizero O'Donnell

AMIZERO SHARES HER LATEST VICTORY, a complete refund from the feds of everything taken from her as "income" taxes during 2018-- with interest:

As will be seen, 2018 predated Amizero's marriage to her excellent husband Tyler, hence her last name appears as Muttu in a few spots in this story...

Here is the filing that produced this victory, after a delay due to an IRS request that she complete and submit this Form 8962. Once that little issue was fixed, the check shown above arrived, along with a pleasing IRS admission of the facts in black-and-white:

WELL DONE, Amizero!

Nick Memmelaar

NICK WASTED NO TIME submitting his first educated filings after receiving an erroneous W-2 from the company for which he worked during 2022. The respectful responses were just as prompt. On March 23, 2023 and then again on April 4, Nick received his complete refunds of everything claimed from both Michigan and the feds:

Well done, Nick!

It must be said that Nick did things a bit differently than most for these debut educated filings. He chose to rebut the mischaracterization of his earnings as statutorily-defined "wages" only once he had submitted his withdrawal of authorization to withhold to the payer (in mid-November), which coincided with his completion of the 40 quarters of contributions to the FICA scheme necessary to qualify for Social Security benefits (see the several Q & As on this topic here, and especially the material at the links found therein).

Here is Nick's Michigan filing, and here is his federal filing. Each reflect Nick's decision, as is explained in considerable relevant detail in the cover letters accompanying the returns.

Here is the W-2 created by Nick's payer, which will make clear that his refunds, though relatively small, and despite Nick reporting a big chunk of "wages" on his 4852s (per his calculations as discussed), are indeed the product of educated filings and reflect the agreement of plainly well-informed tax agencies that Nick's earnings do not qualify as "wages" unless he chooses to so designate them-- either deliberately or, as is true for the vast majority, in silent acquiescence fueled by ignorance cultivated by revenue-hungry and thoroughly unscrupulous governments.

More Victories- Page 71

More Victories- Page 73

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Even in the face of the requirements of the law, the junkyard dog still tries to play its losing hand occasionally. Ironically, it is these sporadic spasms of resistance that offer the most telling evidence of the truth about the tax...

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Despite the fact that those whose victories are on display here did nothing but insist that the law be applied as it is written, they did so in the face of fearful threats and cunning disinformation from the beneficiaries of corruption.  Their actions took great courage and commitment, and I salute them all.