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The Court ordered a seriatim briefing schedule, with
petitioners to lead off, as they requested. After an extension
of time, petitioners filed a 52-page brief, with more than 130
citations of statutes, regulations, cases, and other materials,
partially typed but largely handwritten, with three exhibits
attached, consisting of the IRS Mission Statement, the White
House press release accompanying the President's signature of
H.R. 1226, the Taxpayer Browsing Protection Act, and an excerpt
from 1953 hearings before the Ways and Means Committee,
consisting of a portion of the testimony of Dwight E. Avis, Head,
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division, Bureau of Internal Revenue, in
which he stated, among other things: “Your income tax is 100
percent voluntary tax and your liquor tax is 100 percent enforced
tax”. Upon receipt of petitioners' brief, the Court issued an
order informing the parties that they need not file additional
briefs and that the case would be deemed fully submitted.
Discussion
Petitioners' brief, although much longer, by reason of the
inclusion of copious quotations and additional citations, than
the letter to the Appeals officer, adds nothing of substance to
what was said in the letter. In these circumstances, our recent
comments in VonDyl v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1998-120, are
exactly to the point:
Petitioner, by selectively analyzing statutes,
regulations, and case precedent out of context, has
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