(excerpted from)


                             THE LIBERATOR ONLINE

   November 30, 1999
   Vol. 4, No. 23
   http://www.self-gov.org/liberator/maintain.html


IRS Under Investigation

   The number of IRS inspectors under investigation will soon nearly
   equal the number of Americans suspected of tax crimes, according to
   the New York Times. The Treasury Department's new inspector general
   for tax affairs, David Williams, plans to investigate 4,000 workers
   for the 2000 fiscal year, which began in October.

   That number means that almost one out of every 28 IRS employees will
   be probed in the next fiscal year for suspected misconduct. Among
   front-line workers -- such as auditors and collectors -- 1 in 9 will
   be investigated. This unprecedented number of investigations is one
   reason for IRS plans to reduce audit rates by one-third next year.

   Charges being investigated range from harassing taxpayers to theft.

   By comparison, notes the Times, fewer than 1 in 2,000 workers at the
   Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services will be
   investigated in fiscal year 2000.

   (Source: New York Times, 11/18/99)
   _________________________________________________________________

Gun Violence Down Sharply In U.S.

   Despite public perception, gun violence and injuries in the United
   States have dropped dramatically.

   According to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and
   Prevention, gun deaths in the United States dropped 21 percent between
   1993 and 1997 to the lowest level in more than 30 years. The number of
   fatalities dropped from 39,595 (15.4 gun deaths per 100,000 people) in
   1993, to 32,436 (12.1 per 100,000) in 1997. The figures include not
   only homicides (two-thirds of which are committed by guns, and which
   are at their lowest level since the 1960s) but also suicides and
   accidental deaths.

   Furthermore, firearm-related injuries fell 41 percent. Nonfatal
   shootings fell from 104,390 to 64,207 in the same period, or from 40.5
   per 100,000 to 24.0.

   (Source: Associated Press, 11/19/99)
   _________________________________________________________________

"Voluntary" Online Tax Proposed

   Some powerful groups want you to pay a lot more sales taxes on your
   Internet purchases.

   The National Governors Association, the US Conference of Mayors, and
   four other groups are backing a plan by Utah Governor Mike Leavitt
   (R-Utah) which is designed to get online companies to charge sales
   taxes on an allegedly "voluntary" basis.

   According to an article in Wired News (the online edition of Wired
   Magazine), Americans buying products from mail order businesses in
   other states are technically required to pay sales taxes -- but in
   practice, few are charged sales taxes at present.

   Governor Leavitt's proposal will try to encourage online businesses to
   "volunteer" to automatically add sales taxes to merchandise totals.
   Governments would approve software that Web sites would then use to
   charge taxes, based on the shipping destination.

   But why should a Web business "volunteer" to start collecting sales
   taxes, when doing so would raise their prices and perhaps send
   customers to other sites or even to offline businesses?

   Well, it's all in how you define "volunteer."

   Leavitt says companies might "volunteer" to comply with his proposal
   in order to avoid additional government paperwork and red tape -- or
   to avoid audits from state and local government tax authorities.

   In other words, "volunteer" or we'll come get you. Gov. Leavitt and
   company want their plan to be "voluntary" in the same way that the
   income tax is voluntary.

   The plan, which also calls for Congress to charter private companies
   to help facilitate the collection of the tax, has been endorsed by the
   Council of State Governments, the National Council of State
   Legislators, and the International City County Management Association.
   It has been sent to the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce,
   which Congress created last year and which will deliver a report on
   Internet taxation by spring 2000.

   Libertarians, other free-marketeers, and others who want to see Web
   business continue to grow quickly condemned the plan, which is one of
   many proposals for Internet taxes that are circulating. Expect a long
   battle ahead

   (Source: Wired News article by Declan McCullagh, 11/16/99)

   _________________________________________________________________

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   site: http://www.self-gov.org/liberator/

   "May it be to the world... to assume the blessings and security of
   self-government." -- Thomas Jefferson