I didn't intend to sound THAT worn out, I was just tired and could not dig up what I wanted to add to this thread. I'm all better now.... :)

Here is my story of how I came to strike, it's actually posted over a year ago, so if it's not a violation, I'll post apart of it here.

Eight years ago I opened a business in a small town after purchasing the long abandoned Railroad Depot. For three years my business prospered and I was able to expand the original building to five times it's original size. Since the business was centered around handwork of my own making (pottery), you can imagine how happy I was with the growth and with the welcome I received from the community I came to love.

After the 2008 election my business like so many other retail businesses suffered a loss in sales and of course income. Since I have another fixed source of personal income, and the fact that I took on no debt to build my business, I felt confident that I could weather any storm. To this point I took no income from the business, choosing to put all profit back into the studio, equipment and supplies.

For the next two years we watched every dime, paid all our bills, expanded into wholesale markets and worked to build an additional internet market for my product. We did everything right, covered all the bases and filed sales taxes, filed income tax statements and to outward appearances, we seemed successful except we still never took a salary, but I was happy that what I was working toward was a future where we would reap the benefits of our labors.

Then one day late in 2010, I received a letter from the IRS informing me that they were going to audit my business, my personal filings and bank accounts. Although there was going to be some effort required to gather 3 years of statements, copies of filings, deposit slips, sales tax payments and all the rest, I knew I had filed everything correctly and the accountant I hired to file my taxes was a old, established firm I had confidence in. A few days and I had everything in one big file box, copies of everything, financial statements or each year and proof of where every dollar of income I had came from.

The two agents came to my business on a day we were closed and I laid everything out for them, gave them copies of everything, and as they ran the numbers, they agreed that indeed I had actually not taken any income, that every dollar that had entered my cash register was accounted for, and finally informed me that this was the problem - they did not believe that anyone would do what I did without hiding income somewhere. That our lifestyle mandated that we had more income than they could account for.

We then spent 6 months confirming every dollar we had earned, every capital gain, every cent of savings interest and how I'd taken a tax exempt settlement 15 years back. After all that they finally conceded that yes, I was a rare person who was actually 100% honest in all ways with my tax reporting and I owed nothing. I felt like I'd been beat to a pulp by then but I was relieved that this might be over. I was so relieved that I almost missed the next thing they told me. They added that there was a certain change that needed to be filed, that it did not change a thing, it was a correction and the agents assistant walked me through the form.

As I placed the form into the mail, I really assumed the grief was over. Foolish me. Two weeks latter another letter arrived informing me that a change had been entered to my filing that increased my tax liability in the amount of $145,000!!! I just lost the next few minutes. When my blood pressure finnaly lowered enough that I could see to read I quickly discovered that the person who had input the data into the computer had made a error and multiplied one number 10 times the real number.

A quick call to the investigating agents office revealed what I could expect for the next year. "Oh, our people could not have made a mistake like that" was a phrase I soon got familiar with, along wit "if you pay this now, we will refund it to you when the entry problem is solved" sure you will. Then they began to ask for me to pay the interest on the amount I did not owe, or else they might be forced to freeze my bank accounts.

Almost a year of this, while I'm trying to run a business that was just getting by. The business I loved, the work I got out of bed for, the craft I'd spent years to perfect and the 6 years of university training I'd spent acquiring the needed skills was being used as a club against me each time I unlocked the door.

A year after it started there in the mail was the letter confirming that all claims against me had been dropped and that I owed nothing to the IRS - I was a free man - according to the government.

A couple events came together and a few weeks later a lady in town asked me if I'd ever consider selling my place. I thought about all that had taken place. The grief, the fear and frustration, all of it flashed in my mind for the long span of 15 seconds and I answered, yes I am. I sold it to her for $100 less than I'd invested. The IRS got nothing from me, my labor or my future.

I'm on STRIKE

Being an "artist" people assume that I drink the liberal KoolAid and believe that anything government does is just great. Well, this artist (a term I detest - I'm a craftsman - I create things, good things, well made and inspiring on some level) creates for HIS profit, HIS soul, HIS urge, HIS dream. If you like it (and I hope you do - I do have a ego :D) buy it. If you don't like it, that's OK too, but do not tell me how to make it so that EVERYONE WILL LOVE IT. I did not make it for them or you, sorry.

Then I turn around and those who pledge to support "we the people" fight everything we try to do. In ASII Ken Daninger says the "government takes what it wants and taxes what is left". Man oh man, truer words were never spoken. If you are a "good business" and make green products today, you can write your ticket for stimulus money, special incentives for government purchase agents and so on. But if you work with coal or oil, well, you just might be closed down. All green jobs are "vital", while jobs in coal mines and oil fields must be sacrificed.

The IRS are the storm troopers these days and far too many people find themselves in the place I was. Thanks for the suggestion about getting representation, my accountant did as much as he could to help. He told me that he'd never seen anybody go through so much who did nothing wrong.

There is one lesson I learned from this, the IRS always assumes you are guilty before you prove yourself innocent. I thought at one point we were going to lose our large home (which I built myself), our cars and camper and be left on the street - guilty of the crime of being a innocent man.

Now, my wife and I travel, looking for our "valley" and when I find it, I'll buy it (or as much as I can afford) and shrug off everything that ties us in a state that's become oppressive in a nation becoming oppressive. I hope we may yet find happiness in my chosen occupation.

A occupation I will not profit the looters with or feed the moochers with. The proceeds will be mine. Until then, like I said, I'm on Strike.

If I could like this comment more than once, I would.