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The New York Times reported last week that tax protestor Larken Rose was convicted on five counts of willfully failing to file tax returns. Rose dared the Justice Department to indict him because he wanted to prove to a jury that U.S. tax laws are a fraud

Jury deliberation took less than 90 minutes, and their verdicts are the latest setback for Rose’s followers, two of whom are serving long prison sentences. Other followers, including his wife, Tessa David, also face trial.

And yet, in spite of these convictions, a small but growing number of U.S. citizens, who say that the IRS is a criminal organization that illegally extracts taxes, appears undeterred.

Rose, 37, a medical transcriber from Jenkintown, PA, is the leading promoter of the 861 position, which holds that the wages earned by Americans employed by domestic companies are not taxable.

Section 861 of the tax code specifies that wages are taxable. However, Rose's claim is based on IRS regulations that explain the code section.

Since 1966 Judges, in detailed rulings, have held that the theory is "nonsensical" and frivolous. Despite this, Federal District Court Judge Michael Baylson allowed Rose to explain the theory.

Rose, representing himself, delivered a fiery, hour long closing argument Friday, in which he denounced the federal government. Rose likened the federal government to a bully wielding a baseball bat who demands that his victim say that " two plus two equals five." "Wham!" Mr. Rose shouted, swinging his arms as if he were wielding a bat at someone insisting that the answer is four.

Rose further stated the government "wants to oppress other people" and is "a throwback to medieval times." And he said that starting in 1998 he stopped filing tax returns because that would "be lying and committing a fraud."

Rose argued for his acquittal because, he said, he sincerely believes he does not have to pay taxes.

The prosecutor belittled this claim and stated that Rose could have taken the IRS. to civil court to test his theory. He said Rose just wanted to find an excuse to not pay his taxes.

The prosecutor, Floyd Miller, quoted an email message in which Rose, calling himself an anarchist, contacted a Montana militia to propose a "bloodless coup." In another message Rose wrote that "I don't actually like the Constitution" and that "I cannot choose to believe someone else over my judgment" and "I feel no obligation to obey" the law.

The prosecutor said that "Mr. Rose selectively educated himself," picking language from 18th-century court rulings, "but ignoring recent rulings by judges in three recent cases" in which Mr. Rose was involved. In two of those cases judges upheld injunctions against other promoters of the 861 position. In the third, Rose testified on behalf of a Texas businessman, Richard Simkanin, who stopped withholding taxes from his employees' paychecks. An appeals court last week upheld Simkanin’s conviction and sentence.

Judge Baylson ordered Rose confined to his home until his sentencing on November 15, 2005. Rose could face having to serve the maximum prison time of five years. The judge remarked that if Rose files his tax returns and makes arrangements to start paying his taxes, then he would be lenient at sentencing, but that, if he did not, the sentence would be harsh.

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