SEDM STATE RESPONSE LETTER INSTRUCTIONS
IMPORTANT!:
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Every SEDM Response Letter comes as a ZIP file containing one or more separation Microsoft Word (*.doc) and Adobe Acrobat (*.pdf) files. In order to use our response letters, you will therefore need:
3.1 Internet Explorer 7.
3.2 Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or later.
6.1 Adobe Reader does not allow you to save a PDF form in such a way that the data you entered into the form is preserved for later reuse.
6.2 Adobe Acrobat Standard or Acrobat Professional both support saving of filled in forms to preserve the data that is entered for later reuse.
Why do we use the ZIP file format to package our letters? Below are a few reasons:
Immediately after you place your order for a response letter, you should receive an order confirmation email in your email inbox. If you don't receive the order confirmation email, the following scenarios are likely and should be investigated before you call or contact us to ask for us to resend the order confirmation email:
For all of the above scenarios, the solution to the problem is to use the following procedure:
It is very common that people do step 1 above but forget the other two steps and call us to complain that they never received the email. Please make sure that you execute ALL THREE of the above steps so that every place where spam filtering is accomplished has been examined BEFORE you call us to ask for help. Many people aren't even aware of the spam filtering that is done by their spam filtering service provider or their ISP and have never even logged into the web interface for these providers. This happens usually because they didn't setup their computer themself and the person who set it up for them never told them how the email works. It is important for you to understand this because otherwise, you will create lots of needless extra work for us trying to figure out how your email system works or in resending the order confirmation to an alternate address that is unfiltered. PLEASE BE A GOOD AND RESPONSIBLE NETWORK CITIZEN by learning how your system does spam filtering so that you can ensure that you will get emails that people send you when you want them.
Please make sure you use Microsoft Internet Explorer and turn OFF your firewall software before you start the download. If you are using Netscape or AOL browsers, or you forget to turn off your firewall software, the download will probably not work. Be advised that the download link in the Order Confirmation Email will work for exactly 48 hours and then expire so please take action before then or you will create needless extra work for us manually recreating the expired link. You may contact our technical support to get help with download problems on our Contact Us Page. Also be advised that it is a violation of the Member Agreement (see http://sedm.org/participate/member-agreement/) and the copyright to share your copy with anyone outside of your immediate family or to resell it. Downloads are monitored and you will be contacted if you exceed your download limit. We do not advise reusing this letter again if you get another similar letter in the future because our response letters are updated frequently and may not work in the future.
To download your response letter, follow the procedures below:
An online order was just processed on the Sovereignty Education and Defense Ministry (SEDM) web site. Below is the information for the order.
Order Number: ORD200709114
Date: 09/11/2007
Time: 23:18:32
IP Address: 77.77.77.77
Referring URL: Not Applicable
Account ID: Not Applicable
Affiliate Code: Not Applicable
Status: Completed
Payment Method: [redacted]
Item Subtotal: Canadian $65.00
Total Amount: Canadian $65.00
Billing Information:
John Doe
11201 Elm Street
Anytown, Anystate 77777
United States
Telephone Number: 777-777-7777
Fax Number: Not Applicable
Email Address: johndoe@confidential.com
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Item: Federal Form 4549 Response - Canadian $65.00
Quantity: 1
http://www.sedm.org/storepublic/downloads/51F1621418-IRS-FRM4549.zip
Username: softgood
Password: downloadit
Thank you for obtaining the Federal Form 4549 Income Tax Examination Changes Response letter. We very much appreciate your donation and welcome you to visit us again. Thank you also for becoming a Member of SEDM, which the checkout process repeatedly emphasized is mandatory in order to obtain any of our strictly educational information or materials. As a Member, you consent unconditionally to abide by all present and future versions of the Member Agreement, which you may read at: http://sedm.org/participate/member-agreement/ The text above this paragraph contains a link to our website where you may download your copy of the letter in ZIP format. Just click on the link, enter the Username and Password appearing above, and you will be then asked where you want to save the file. Select the location on your local hard drive and then hit OK. Allow plenty of time to finish the download. Don’t forget to download and install a ZIP decompression utility in order to uncompress the file after you download. Information about decompression utilities is available at: http://sedm.org/DecompressionUtility.htm.
Please make sure you use Microsoft Internet Explorer and turn OFF your firewall software before you start the download. If you are using Netscape or AOL browsers, or you forget to turn off your firewall software, the download will probably not work. Be advised that the download link in this email will work for exactly 48 hours and then expire so please take action before then or you will create needless extra work for us manually recreating the expired link. You may call our technical support to get help with download problems at 800-753-7661. Also be advised that it is a violation of the Member Agreement (see http://sedm.org/participate/member-agreement/) and the copyright to share your copy with anyone outside of your immediate family or to resell it. Downloads are monitored and you will be contacted if you exceed your download limit. We do not advise reusing this letter again if you get another similar letter in the future because our response letters are updated frequently and may not work in the future.
If you have problems with the content of the letter that are related to simple matters of Previewing, Printing, spelling or grammar, then you may contact our tech support at 800-753-7661. If you have any other questions or problems with the letter, please write down your questions and fax them with your contact information to (800) 753-7661. You will subsequently be contacted via email or phone with an answer to your questions.
BEFORE contacting us about problems with your response letter, please ensure that you:
1. Carefully read and follow the RESPONSE LETTER INSTRUCTIONS at the beginning of the letter.
2. If this does not address all your issues, next visit our Support page, Section 3 entitled "Tax Response Letter Help" and try the online tutorials there. These two tutorials deal with 95 % of the problems that people call us about. You can view the Support page at the link below:
3.1 Simply clicking on the link, if your email program is connected with your browser. The link is:
http://www.sedm.org/storepublic/downloads/51F1621418-IRS-FRM4549.zip
3.2 If the email program is not interfaced with your browser such that clicking on the above link doesn't work, you must:
3.2.1 Selecting the link text in your email program by clicking at the beginning, holding down the left mouse button, and dragging it to the end of the link text.
3.2.2 Copy the link text by pressing "Ctrl-C" on your keyboard.
3.2.3 Open the browser window separately using the START button on your screen.
3.2.4 Click in the browser Address Bar.
3.2.5 Paste the link text into the browser address bar by pressing "Ctrl-V".
Username: softgood
Password: downloadit
The general procedure for preparing your response letter is as follows:
2.1 Microsoft Word 2003 and earlier:
2.1.1 Select "Tools->Macro->Security…" in the Microsoft Word menus. The security dialog box will appear.
2.1.2 Click on the “Security” tab and then select the “Low” radio button.
2.1.3 Then click on “OK”. Then close and restart Microsoft Word and reopen the document for the changes to take affect.
If you have trouble with the above three steps, visit Section 3.3 on our Support Page for further guidance.
2.2 Microsoft Word 2007 and later:
Follow the graphical procedures in Section 3.5 of our Support Page.
3.1 Select "File"
3.2 Select "Open"
3.3 Locate the file.
3.4 Click the "Open Button"
# | Field description |
Format/ Example |
Value |
1 | First name | Upper and lower case | |
2 | Middle name | Upper and lower case | |
3 | Last name | Upper and lower case | |
4 | Street address | ||
5 | City | ||
6 | State |
Spell out (NO two-letter designators) |
|
7 | Zip code | (NNNNN-NNNN) | |
8 | Home Phone | (NNN) NNN-NNNN | |
9 | Social Security Number | NNN-NN-NNNN | |
10 | Date of original IRS notice | MM/DD/YYYY | |
11 | Date of this letter | MM/DD/YYYY | |
12 | IRS Service Center Address | Street address | |
13 | IRS Service Center City | ||
14 | IRS Service Center State | AA | |
15 | IRS Service Center Zip code | NNNNN-NNNN | |
16 | IRS Service Center Contact (from IRS letter) | John Doe | |
17 | IRS Service Center Employee ID (from IRS letter) | ||
18 | Tax Year(s) in Question |
YYYY or YYYY-YYYY |
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NOTES:
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Most response letters contain Exhibits. The Response Letter Exhibits originate from one of two locations, both of which are accessible at the top of the Opening Page of the SEDM Website:
After you have printed your response letter, you should download all the Forms and Exhibits listed at the beginning of the Response Letter itself. Below is an example list of Exhibits from the Federal 4549 response letter example above:
Exhibits:
1.Original IRS 4549 Letter you sent
2.Legislative Intent of the 16th Amendment, Congressional Record US Senate [EX0029]
3.Department of the Treasury Organizational Chart published in the Federal Register [EX0031]
4.1 CFR 601.702(a)(1) Requirement for implementing regulations [EX0019]
5.1 CFR 301.6109-1 Identifying Numbers [EX0004]
6.Cynthia Mills Letter , IRS Disclosure Officer Hoverale Letter [EX1000]
7.Michael L. White, Federal Attorney, Office of the Federal Register GAO letter 9-15-2003 – IRS without statutory authority to impose penalty to enforce compliance [EX0021]
In the above list, "[EX0029]" within Exhibit 1 above means Exhibit 0029 on the Exhibits Page above.
IMPORTANT:
The SEDM Member Agreement,
Section 2.3, requires that all response letters
must
include corrected information returns, even if they are not listed
in the Response Letter Exhibits list at the beginning of the letter.
You must prepare one corrected information return for
every type
of information return filed against you for the years that are the
subject of the collection letter you receive in accordance with
the following references:
If your response letter does not include an exhibit section for corrected information returns, we recommend that Item #6 above be included with the corrected information return and provided attached to your response letter. Generally, IRS form W-2C is used to correct false IRS form W-2's. You should only use standard IRS form 4852's if you are filing a return. Otherwise, the form W-2C must be used to correct false IRS form W-2's. In addition, we recommend that every one of the response letters you send in should have the following completed forms attached to clearly establish your status with legally admissible evidence, even if these forms do not appear in the Response Letter Exhibits list at the beginning of the letter. All of the following forms are electronically fillable to simply the task of "voluntary compliance" [heee....heeee]:
For the purposes of satisfying the repetitive requirements of this note, we suggest preparing all the forms to satisfy the requirements of this section and then reusing them for all your response letters. In order to reuse forms you have prepared, you may either:
The reason for mentioning the above two options is that the Free Adobe Acrobat Reader does NOT allow you to save and reuse forms you have filled in electronically and you will need to buy the Standard or Professional versions of Adobe Acrobat for a few hundred dollars in order to have this capability. |
Generally, we advise:
A very important way to ensure that the people at the receiving end are held accountable for responding is to develop court admissible evidence of what you sent, when it was sent, and to whom it was sent. The options for this are as follows, where the lowest number is the most preferred:
1.1 What was sent.
1.2 When it was sent.
1.3 By whom it was sent.
The only disadvantage of this approach is that it costs usually about $15 to do each time: $10 for the notary plus $5 for the mail server whose identity was verified by the notary.
If you would like to know more about how to develop a good administrative record, see "Techniques for Building a Good Administrative Record, Form #09.008".
Most tax collection notices are sent out by a computer unsigned without a personal contact at the agency who sent them. This does nothing but encourage irresponsibility and injustice on the part of the agency. If you send your response letter ONLY to the address indicated on the computer notice, then most of the time, it will be ignored because it does not name a specific "belly button" who has to take responsibility. You are much more likely to achieve positive and consistent results if you send your letter to several places in addition to the return address indicated on the notice. The higher up the food chain you go in the federal workplace, the more likely you are to get results. One technique we like to employ is to include in the list of addressees some very high level supervisors. IRS supervisors do not like to be cc'd on everything that is sent to the subordinates. They don't like getting floods of correspondence from you any more than you like being flooded with collection notices from the IRS. You can use this technique to become a "squeaky wheel" that gets plenty of grease and attention. IRS knows this, and so they don't publish a personnel listing of people at the service centers and national offices. You must really dig for this information. Below is a list of the sources for IRS agency personnel listings that you can use to find addresses of supervisors to send your response letters to, sequenced in descending order of value:
The squeaky wheel gets the grease! This means the more hassle and trouble you make for the government every time they bother you with a collection notice, the less likely they are to bother you. The following techniques are helpful in this regard:
The contacts at the end of the previous section are a good starting point to locate high-level people who you should bother constantly to ensure that they feel just as bothered about violating the law as you feel bothered about receiving their notices to begin with.
If you received a Notice of Deficiency or Notice of Proposed Assessment (NPA) collection letter, it is important in your response to request legally admissible evidence of a lawful assessment using the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act, and their equivalent at the state level. One procedure for doing this is as follows:
1.1. Download and complete the Demand for Verified Evidence of Lawful State Assessment, Form #07.204 if you are responding to a State notice.
1.2 Download and complete the Demand for Verified Evidence of Lawful Federal Assessment, Form #07.304 if you are responding to a Federal notice.
Your administrative record consists of all correspondence going both directions between you and the government. Maintaining a good administrative record is of utmost importance as a defense against illegal collection actions. Over the years, we have discovered a number of tips useful in managing and minimizing the size of your administrative tax record. Below is a summary:
I look forward to being corrected promptly in anything you believe is inconsistent with reality found in this correspondence or any of its attachments. If you do not respond, I shall conclude that you believe I am a “nontaxpayer” who is neither subject to nor liable for any internal revenue tax.
"The revenue laws are a code or system in regulation of tax assessment and collection. They relate to taxpayers, and not to nontaxpayers. The latter are without their scope. No procedure is prescribed for nontaxpayers, and no attempt is made to annul any of their rights and remedies in due course of law. With them Congress does not assume to deal, and they are neither of the subject nor of the object of the revenue laws..."
"The distinction between persons and things within the scope of the revenue laws and those without is vital."
[Long v. Rasmussen, 281 F. 236, 238(1922)]I remind you that your own IRS mission statement says that you can only help “taxpayers” to understand their tax responsibilities and therefore, if you won’t talk with me, the only thing I can logically conclude is that I must not be a “taxpayer” and instead am a “nontaxpayer” not subject to any provision within the I.R.C. In that case, thank you for confirming that I am person outside your jurisdiction and not “liable” for any internal revenue tax:
IRM 1.1.1.1 (02-26-1999)
IRS Mission and Basic OrganizationThe IRS Mission: Provide America’s taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and by applying the tax law with integrity and fairness to all.
"Exhibit ___ of ____: Not valid without all exhibits attached."
If litigation ever ensues involving liabilities documented in your administrative record, a favorite trick of the government is to conveniently "lose" portions of your correspondence in their records that are incriminating or which they don't want to deal with. This is their way to filter evidence. Judges do the same thing by ordering selected portions of your administrative record excluded from evidence and review by the jury. By labeling each exhibit and adding the phrase above, you alert the jury that the judge or the IRS or both are obstructing justice by hiding the full content of the administrative record from the jury.
For further information on how to maintain a good administrative file, see:
Techniques for Building a Good Administrative Record, Form #09.008
Please carefully note that none of the authorized purposes of our response letters are commercial. Our response letters are not authorized or intended to be used as a "tax shelter" or as a way to reduce the liability of a "taxpayer". In fact, they are prohibited from being used by "taxpayers" so as to prevent them from being used to interfere with the lawful enforcement of the I.R.C. Rather, our response letters are primarily law enforcement and self-defense tools exclusively for use by "nontaxpayers". We emphasize that every man has an inalienable right to learn and know and use the law in his own self-defense, and also has a right to assistance of counsel in learning and knowing and using the law in his defense by obtaining and reading our educational materials.
A Response Letter is a letter that you prepare in order to send to the government in response to an income tax collection notice which was sent to you wrongfully or illegally. It was sent wrongfully or illegally usually because of one of the following situations pertaining to the "nontaxpayers" (ONLY!) who use this website:
2.1 Slavery in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment, 42 U.S.C. §1994, and 18 U.S.C. §1589
2.2 Criminal racketeering in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1951
2.3 Makes all information returns files based on it into inadmissible fruit of a crime excludible under the "fruit of a poisonous tree doctrine".
2.4 Makes those who withhold the taxes associated into money launderers for the U.S. government in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1956
3.1 Non-Resident Non-Person Position, Form #05.020
3.2 Federal Enforcement Authority in States of the Union, Form #05.032
SEDM Response Letters are only available for use by Members who agree unconditionally with the terms of our Member Agreement and satisfy all of its provisions for all tax years in which they intend to employ our information or services. This ensures that we are never accused of interfering with any LAWFUL government function or tax. The Member Agreement specifically requires that:
If you aren't complying with the above steps, then you are abusing our materials and using them in a highly unauthorized manner for which you agree to assume full, exclusive, and personal responsibility.
Our readers frequently ask us questions about how to respond to various situations relating to response letters. Below are some of the more common questions:
Question 1: I do not see any information on the steps to take next if they ignore a response I sent them. If they keep "rubber stamping" their decisions, I still end up in collection. The question is what is the place to read the next step. Your paperwork in very good, but need I to follow through.
Answer #1: Don't fall into the trap that we have all the answers. There must be some room for you to use your own creativity. All we know is what the law says, how to explain what it says, and what it obligates the government to do. What you are asking about is how to deal with an essentially political problem within the agency that is supposed to respond, which is whether or how they choose to respond to the correspondence.
In our experience, the higher up you go with your response and the more cc parties you have on your response, such as the commissioner and the chief counsel, and the more proof of service you use, the more accountable they will be and act and the more likely you are to get the results you seek.
What we do in our case is keep our whole administrative record in electronic form on a single DVD, and also make it available online, and then attach a copy of the disk to every correspondence and give a link to the online version to build up our administrative file so we have standing to sue for a false claim. We also send it to the very high ups, and we more often than not get a cessation of hostilities. If you only respond to "ACS" or some flunky at the bottom without cc'ing everyone else, then you will get undesirable results. Personal accountability on the part of the recipient, and naming specific people is the best way to get results. Telephone follow up can also help quite a bit. If the notice you receive doesn't have the name of a specific person, then single out at least one person high up on the food chain for personal accountability and hound them relentlessly on the telephone and via mail. You may wish to resend the response with a one page cover letter to the commissioner and the IRS chief counsel and tell them they will be called as witnesses. This gets them squirming and causes them to discontinue the notices. Click here (OFFSITE LINK) for a list of contacts you can use for this purpose.
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