Woman owing $250K in taxes arrested again in 2008 case

OWATONNA — Sylvia Lee, formerly of Medford, believes that income tax is optional, no court has authority over her without her consent, and she has the power to order the arrest of any judge who disagrees.

She has expressed these beliefs in numerous court filings and, most recently, in a series of letters written to the Owatonna People’s Press from the Steele County Detention Center. One such letter claimed that income tax only applied to residents of “the United States minor,” meaning non-state territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam.

“We the people are foreign and alien to the U.S. minor,” she writes. “No one has conquered us for which we have to pay tribute. We are tax exempt and our vessels (commercial) are tax exempt.”

So far, her view has not prevailed among state and federal tax officials. Lee, 66, was charged in 2008 with 11 felony counts of failure to pay taxes and filing fraudulent returns after she reportedly claimed exemption to all state taxes on years of income from her job as a benefits councilor with the Veterans Administration, as well as income from a separate real estate business and at least seven private rental properties, totaling more than $42,000 in unpaid taxes.

Read more: http://www.southernminn.com/owatonna_peoples_press/news/article_56f3da9c-c411-5594-a2a9-40817a532e35.html