A Michigan husband and wife, who've been involved in previous tax protests, could soon face a court order preventing them from promoting what the government says is the No. 1 tax scheme in the country.
The U.S. Department of Justice has requested the court order, which also asks the couple be forced to return more than $20,000 in tax funds and sues seven people who used the couple's advice and received refunds.
Peter Eric Hendrickson, 50, and his wife, Doreen, 51, both of Commerce Township, Mich., sell his book, "Cracking the Code," over the Internet. According to his LostHorizons.com Web site, through loopholes in the Internal Revenue Service's refund-processing system, the book has saved taxpayers from more than $910,000 in taxes from federal and state governments without government interference.
The IRS scheme Hendrickson promoted, "Zero Wages," is listed first on the IRS's list of top tax schemes.
In an allusion to the Boston Tea Party, the Hendricksons and two others mailed a bomb packed with a tea bag to the IRS in 1990; the package exploded in route and injured a postal worker. The Hendricksons cooperated in prosecuting the other two bombers in return for dismissal of the charges against Doreen Hendrickson and a prison sentence for Hendrickson of a little more than a year.
The government is requesting that a judge order Hendrickson to file corrected tax returns and sign them. Of the seven other connected cases the Justice Department is pursuing, the largest refund the government is seeking to recover is just under $70,000. The Hendrickson action is part of a recent crackdown, with the Justice Department having obtained 170 injunctions against promoters of tax schemes and their customers.
