Tax Protester Irwin Schiff Dies In Prison At Age 87

New York Times, Irwin Schiff, Fervent Opponent of Federal Income Taxes, Dies at 87:

Irwin A. Schiff, who built a national following by arguing that income taxes are unconstitutional and spent more than 10 years in prison for evading them and for helping thousands of others to do the same, died on Friday at a hospital affiliated with a federal prison in Fort Worth. He was 87.

The cause was lung cancer, his son Andrew said.

At his death, Mr. Schiff was an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution, where he was serving his third prison term, a 14-year sentence handed down in 2005.

Mr. Schiff sold more than 250,000 copies of six self-published books, including How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Taxes (1980), The Great Income Tax Hoax (1985) and The Federal Mafia: How the Federal Government Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Federal Income Taxes (1992).

His writings became widely cited in the literature of the so-called tax-honesty movement (tax deniers, to opponents) and of right-wing organizations challenging the legitimacy of the federal government.

• Peter J. Reilly (Forbes), Irwin Schiff Famed Tax Protester Dies In Prison
• Newman v. Schiff, 778 F.3d 460 (8th Cir. 1985) ("If anybody calls this show--I have the Code--and cites any section of this Code that says an individual is required to file a tax return, I will pay them $100,000.")

(Hat Tip: Jordan Barry.)