Another Black Eye For Aviation?

As if the aviation biz didn't have enough embarrassment to deal with... The owner of an aviation equipment supplier that has been waging something of a war with the IRS has become the subject of an arrest warrant. Cencal Aviation Products, of Shasta Lake, CA President Al Thompson failed to appear for a hearing in which he was allegedly supposed to explain why he has failed to pay $500,000 in back taxes from that business. When he failed to appear on Friday, Federal Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. of the United States District Court issued the warrant for Thompson's arrest. 

Thompson has been in trouble with the government for quite a while. He has been an outspoken critic of the IRS and other government agencies, engaging in some pretty harsh rhetoric that seems to assert that the government doesn't have the right to levy the taxes he contests. According to published reports and some of Thompson's own statements, the government's documentation is rendered unusable by virtue of the fact that most names on Federal documents are printed in all capital letters. Thompson alleges that "any warrant, court document or order" must capitalize only the first letter in such words and that the government's putting his name all in capitals makes any court order "null and void."

Using this argument, and others, that he and a small group of tax protesters have promoted; Al Thompson (57), has reportedly not withheld employee income taxes for nearly four years and has not paid personal income taxes for nearly five years, according to published reports from Federal officials.

ANN spoke with Cencal's Tim Thompson, who confirmed that Al Thompson was still the President of Cencal, and that the company was still not withholding taxes from its employees. "They're all independent contractors," explained Tim Thompson, but when pressed for more details, he responded that we'd "have to talk to Al about that."

Thompson's fight is not going well. He served a short time in jail in 2002 for failure to produce employee records. Last September, Judge Damrell ordered Thompson to start withholding taxes again and gave him only 30 days to repay the income taxes, FICA and unemployment taxes he still owes. Two months later, Damrell fined Thompson $2,000 while also ordering him to cease filing legal motions that were "devoid of merit and utterly frivolous." Thompson (and his wife) were again fined by the government to the tune of $2000 last month. 

FMI: www.irs.gov, www.cencal.com