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Tami M. May, of Anoka, was charged with obstruction of due administration of IRS laws and 15 counts of filing false tax returns.
She and her husband, Dennis May, operate D & T & Son Excavating in Coon Rapids, but prosecutors said the couple did not file income tax returns or pay income tax between 1998 and 2005.
Customers paid them hundreds of thousands of dollars during that time, prosecutors said.
The IRS notified Dennis May in 2005 that he owed taxes from two years earlier, in addition to penalties and interest.
Dennis May has not been charged in the case, and prosecutors did not say whether he would be.
Investigators said Tami May subsequently made numerous "obstructive and fraudulent filings with the IRS including filing frivolous 'zero income tax returns.' "
She also cited their supposed citizenship of the "Kingdom of Heaven" in an attempt to claim hundreds of thousands of dollars in income tax refunds, authorities said.
Their claims match arguments cited by members of the Embassy of Heaven sovereign citizens group, which issues passports, driver's licenses, and license plates by claiming to be a religious organization that cannot be regulated.
The group is led by Craig Douglas Fleshman, a former Oregon state computer systems analyst who goes by the name "Pastor Paul Revere," and claims that its followers are not subject to government jurisdiction because their allegiance rests with Jesus Christ.
"They are subjects of Christ, not any worldly government," explained Carl Watner in a 1994 post on the Voluntaryist website. "The church's position is that you are the final authority on where you reside and where you put your allegiance. No state can decide this for you, unless you let them."
Some of the group's members have been charged throughout the U.S. in various tax avoidance schemes and in Minnesota for issuing bogus "certificates of self-insurance."
But the group's leader denied the Embassy of God sold the insurance, claiming its members sought only the assurance of the Lord.
"We don't operate in Minnesota," Revere said. "We operate in the Kingdom of Heaven."
Glen Stoll, a self-described attorney associated with the Embassy of Heaven, represented "Dr. Dino" Kent Hovind in the creationist theme park owner's tax evasion scheme.
The U.S. Justice Department later sued Stoll and another Embassy of Heaven member, Michael Stevens, to stop them from teaching paid customers how to evade taxes.
These people are confused and ignorant (dumb on purpose):
But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God." -- Matthew 22:29.
Jesus taught that we should pay taxes:
[The Pharisees said,] "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"
But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." -- Matthew 22:17-21
The Apostle Paul taught that we should pay taxes:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
[Note: government should be obeyed unless its demands CLEARLY violate God's will according to Scripture, see Acts 5:27-29 below.]
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,
for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
For because of this you ALSO PAY TAXES, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.
Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. -- Romans 13:1-7
Acts 5:27-29
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name [Jesus], yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men."
If Tami and Dennis May really were residents of the Kingdom of Heaven as they claim, they would pay their taxes, in obedience to Jesus' and Paul's clear teaching on the matter. If they believe taxes are unjust, they should take it up with the courts.
The Embassy of Heaven people are likewise in the wrong, and “Pastor Paul Revere” obviously doesn’t know the New Testament very well.
People like this blemish the name of Christ.