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785 F.2d 928

Docket No. 85-8646

Motes v. United States

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided March 31, 1986.

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1986-03-31

<p>Non-Argument Calendar.</p>

1 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“only public servants are subject to tax liability”

quoted by 5 later decisions, including United States v. Evangelos Lena, Jenkins v. Comm'r

Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1346 (Federal Tort Claims Act)

Relies on United States v. Goetz · Simanonok v. Commissioner · Hobson v. Fischbeck

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1986-03-31

How this case has been cited

Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently January 2017

1 federal appellate ·

1501986199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Non-Argument Calendar.

¶2Michael L. Paup, Chief, Glenn L. Archer, Jr., Martha B. Brissette, Appellate Section, Tax Div., Dept, of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendant-appellee.

¶3Before GODBOLD, Chief Judge, HILL and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.

¶4PER CURIAM:

¶5Motes and numerous other individuals sued for a refund of income taxes under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346. They advanced an arsenal of arguments, including violation of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution; that their wages are not income subject to tax but are a tax on property such as their labor; that only public servants are subject to tax liability; that withholding of tax from wages is a direct tax on the source of income without apportionment in violation of the Sixteenth Amendment; that withholding taxes violates equal protection; that they should be allowed to exclude from the amount of wages they receive the cost of maintaining their well-being. In a series of cases this court has held that claims such as these are frivolous. U.S. v. Goetz, 746 F.2d 705 (11th Cir.1984); Simanonok v. Commissioner, 731 F.2d 743, 744 (11th Cir.1984); U.S. v. Vance, 730 F.2d 736, 738 (11th Cir.1984); Melton v. Kurtz, 575 F.2d 547, 548 (5th Cir.1978). The order of the district court was correct.

¶6This court has imposed sanctions against individuals raising claims such as these. Waters v. Commissioner, 764 F.2d 1389 (11th Cir.1985); Hobson v. Fischbeck, 758 F.2d 579 (11th Cir.1985); Ricket v. U.S., 773 F.2d 1214 (11th Cir.1985). Accordingly we award double costs and reasonable attorney’s fees to the government. The case is REMANDED to the district court for a determination of reasonable attorney’s fees to the government for the cost of defending this appeal.

¶7AFFIRMED and REMANDED.

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