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A 25-count indictment has been filed against Clifford B. Marston of Gassville for tax evasion, filing false tax returns and assisting in the preparation and presentation to the IRS of false individual income tax returns.
Marston will be arraigned Aug. 9.
Marston is a podiatrist who owns Sunshine Foot Clinic Inc. with offices in Mountain Home and Harrison, according to the indictment by the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas and the IRS-Criminal Investigation special agent-in-charge.
The indictment alleges Marston illegally stopped withholding employment taxes from his employees' salaries during the fourth quarter of 1999, the press release states.
Marston allegedly began filing false employers' annual federal unemployment tax returns and false employers' quarterly federal tax returns in the last quarter of 1999 and continued to do so through the first quarter of 2001, claiming no federal wages paid to employees even though he continued to pay his employees, according to the press release.
The indictment alleges Marston also willfully attempted to evade his personal federal tax liability by filing tax returns that did not properly report his income in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
From 1999 through 2001, Marston willfully attempted to evade and defeat employment taxes due and owing by him and his employees by filing employers' federal tax returns that did not properly reflect employment taxes with the IRS, the release stated.
"Marston was also charged with willfully making and subscribing to amended Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Returns which were made under the penalties of perjury and filed with the IRS that he did not believe to be true and correct as to every material matter in that the returns failed to disclose wages paid to employees of Sunshine Food Clinic Inc.," the release stated.
In addition, the indictment charges that Marston willfully assisted in and procured, counseled and advised others in the preparation and presentation of false and fraudulent individual income tax return 1040 forms.
He's accused of providing two of his employees with false W-2 forms reporting no wages earned for federal purposes even though Marston knew he had paid the employees wages for the years involved.
The investigation was conducted by the IRS-Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Fleming will prosecute the case for the government.
"Charges brought against a person through an indictment are accusations only," the press release states. "That person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty."
The IRS and U.S. Attorney's office claims that Clifford B. Marston is trying to evade taxes is totally false, the local podiatrist said Friday in response to a 25-count indictment filed against him.
Marston believes that in all consciousness he could no longer take money from his employees for something he considers illegal.
"I have been attempting to do, to the best of my ability, to comply with all the regulations that are in the tax code," Marston said. "The problem is that in reading the regulations in the tax code for myself, using search engines and the Internet, I discovered that when the regulations are closely read, that most Americans do not have income that is taxable from a source that is taxable."
Tax regulations state that income must be from a taxable source to be considered income tax, he said. In Marston's view, the IRS has been involved in a vast deception of citizens by misapplying the regulations as they are written.
"I am not opposed to paying taxes; I believe we should pay all the taxes that we owe according to the law," Marston said. "I believe that the government should be obeyed except in the matter of conscience. For me, beginning in 1999, it became a matter of conscience that I had to make the IRS unhappy and still do what I believe to be the truth."
It started when a man showed him a Web site that demonstrated the nature of the tax code as he now believes it to be, he said. Through a nine-month period of time he studied it.
Marston said he came to believe the information was true but still struggled because he knew it would bring him into conflict with the IRS. One day, he said, it dawned on him he could not perjure himself on tax forms and say he had taxable income if he believed he did not.
"The IRS requires that you sign the forms under threat of perjury," he said. "So I cannot lie on the forms in order to stay out of trouble with them."
The IRS claims he is evading taxes, but Marston says as soon as he realized that, he sent amended tax returns to the IRS along with his convictions with respect to the tax code.
"I did not go and hide in a corner," he said. "I did not attempt to disappear from their radar screen so that I could get away with anything. I immediately went to the chief authority in this area of the country. I did that because I believe that they knew the truth of it."
Marston said he believes IRS officials know the truth of it, but they are afraid to admit it because they would be admitting to what he called a multi-trillion dollar fraud.
"I also realized that since I believe they were involved in a fraudulent taking of money from American people, that I could not be an accomplice by withholding from my employees' paychecks the taxes they did not owe," Marston said.
He explained his beliefs to his employees, stopped withholding from them and advised them as far as their own relationship to the IRS, they should consult a legitimate accountant.
Marston said that is where the IRS claims he gave his employees financial counsel.
"I was not attempting to involve them. I had to tell them my position because I was going to stop withholding from their checks, and they would have to take care of it," Marston said. "So, I ceased withholding from them, because I did not want to steal from my employees."
For two years, the IRS treated him as a "nut case," Marston said. It was not until he was interviewed by the Arkansas Business Journal in 2002 that it changed. Within six weeks, he was audited over material the IRS already had gone over, he claimed.
After he hired an attorney, the IRS hit him with a criminal investigation, Marston said.
"In my view, what is going on here is a suppression of my First Amendment rights to tell the truth in a public forum like the Arkansas Business Journal, and it is a denial of due process of law because they have punished me for hiring an effective attorney, Joe Izen," Marston said. "They came and went on a fishing expedition."
Marston said he is standing on principle in not withholding from his employees, because he does not want to be protecting any fraud the IRS has forced upon them and is leaving the outcome to God.
He held up a carving he made this year of his convictions. It includes one panel showing the story of the three children in the fiery furnace from the Book of Daniel, with an angel standing over them.
"I believe I am going to pass through this fire and not be burned," Marston said.
The middle panel is a depiction of the mother of God.
"The mother of God is a prayer warrior for Christians," Marston said. "I believe that her prayers and the prayers of all the saints are protecting me."
The last panel depicts a Psalm which states that the angel of the Lord will deliver them.
"This has been something I carved to encourage my heart going through this with the IRS," Marston said. "I have never been in trouble before. This is totally new to me. That is my answer to the IRS."
Podiatrist will face 25 tax-fraud counts
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