From: [b--ea--y] at [po-box.mcgill.ca] (bart) Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 15:10:14 -0500 Subject: Paul Mavrides on BOE - -Poster: [b--ea--y] at [po-box.mcgill.ca] (bart) Also from the newsgroups. bart [ Article crossposted from alt.slack ] [ Author was Rev. Ivan Stang ] [ Posted on 25 Nov 1995 01:23:42 -0500 ] October, 1995 Dear Comic Creator, The California State Board of Equalization, with its action against me, has threatened our livelihoods, our legal status as literary authors, and our First Amendment right to free speech. Under the Sales Tax Board's severe and invidious interpretation of what qualifies as an author's manuscript, comic creators are classified as mere manufacturers of camera ready printer's aids, rather than as authors. Authors are exempt from sales taxation because the State recognizes that placing sales tax on authors' incomes would inhibit use of an elemental and Constitutionally protected form of free expression by burdening authors and publishers with what would literally be a tax on speech itself. The Tax Board doesn't care if comics authors, publishers and readers alike suffer under such a burden. Our work, in their discriminatory eyes, is only a "template for manufacture" and does not contribute to society in any sphere outside that of monetary commerce. The Tax Board does not make idle threats. If you live in the State of California, you should know that: The Board has promised that, should it prevail in my case, it intends to obtain your name and address from your California publisher, track you down (literally coming to your home and knocking on your front door if necessary, as they did mine), forcibly (under threat of removal of your legal right to do business, thus depriving you of any ability whatsoever to earn an income from freelance work within California, except as an employee of someone else's business) register you as a California business, back audit your financial records all the way to 1990, and impose on you the same type of assessment they have claimed against me (plus interest and penalties), based on your earnings past and present that you have derived from your comic work produced by your California based publishers. You will them be personally responsible for payment of this sum to the State as soon as possible. If you do not pay, the State will rescind your permit to do business (your Seller's permit) and place a lien on your money and property (causing damage to your credit rating for at least seven years, due to the presence on your credit record of the aforementioned lien. If this happens, you can pretty much forget about buying a house or car through a bank loan.). If you ignore the lien, the State will simply empty your checking and savings accounts at will, and possibly seize your tangible business and private property for auction to pay off your debt. In addition, the rescission of your Seller's Permit will prevent you from making new publication contracts with California publishers and earning income from your work. When the Board audits your publisher's business records for names and addresses of resident California comic creators, sooner or later, you will find yourself in the exact same position as myself. There is nowhere you can hide from the immense power of this State tax bureaucracy. The Board is trying to make me serve as a bullet with your name on it and the State of California has aimed their gun right between your eyes. Sounds lovely, eh? A huge tax bill that you and you alone are liable for, based on your California royalty earnings of the past five years; additional business accounting costs to you; lower royalty rates as publishers adjust their budgets; the possibility of denial of credit or banking loans; the loss of readership due to higher cover prices on your books; the possible bankrupting of your California publisher; and the prevention of your ability to earn royalties, residuals and advances due to the withdrawal of your Seller's Permit by the State Government. Readers and fans across the entire world who follow the work of California based comic creators might be denied future work from both established and new talents in the comics field as the financial damage from the effects of the BOE decision percolate throughout the entire comics publishing industry. You aren't helpless, you know. Together, we can fight this autocratic assault on our profession and gain rightful and legitimate recognition as authors. I intend to contest the Equalization Board on this First Amendment issue, with the financial aid of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union, to the United States Supreme Court, if necessary. I cannot stress emphatically enough that the Board must be challenged on this issue by all of us together. I cannot do it alone. We need to stand together on this issue. If the State prevails, it could very well lead to the destruction of the alternative and marginal comics scene in California as we know it. At the very least, the Board's action will severely restrict all comic creators' First Amendment speech rights and deny us legal status as authors, downgrading throughout America the legal and public perception of our work (and that of all comics) as valid works of literature. With your help we will win. Sincerely, Paul Mavrides - -- Copyright 1995 by Rev. Ivan Stang / 1st Orthodox Stangian MegaFisTemple Lodge of People's Covenant Church of the Wrath of Dobbs Yeti, Resurrected / The SubGenius Foundation,Inc. PO Box 140306 Dallas TX 75214 / Fax 214-320-1561 / PRABOB http://sunsite.unc.edu/subgenius -- SubSITE of Slack _________________________________________________________________ To leave this mailing list, send mail to [m--r--o] at [world.std.com] with the message UNSUBSCRIBE COMIX ------------------------------ From: [b--ea--y] at [po-box.mcgill.ca] (bart) Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 15:10:04 -0500 Subject: CBLDF press release - -Poster: [b--ea--y] at [po-box.mcgill.ca] (bart) The following was posted on rac.misc recently and cross-posting to relevant groups was encouraged so naturally I thought of you all :) I have some comments on this but I'll save them for a moment when I have a little more time. bart [ Article crossposted from alt.slack ] [ Author was Rev. Ivan Stang ] [ Posted on 25 Nov 1995 00:32:39 -0500 ] >From the Comic Book Defense Fund: PRESS RELEASE 10-95 100th Anniversary of the Comic Strip May Be Its Last California Zaps Cartoonists and Children's Books with an Unconstitutional Tax "It's sad and ironic that California, a state that has figured so prominently in the development of the medium of comicsxshould now come to stand for the forces of darkness and repression. If the implications of California's tax board-that comics are not literature but simply a commodity-are allowed to stand, I guess I'll have to send back my National Book Critics Circle nominationsxas well as my Pulitzer." Art Spiegelman (author of Maus) Comics Creators Denied Rights as Authors For the last four and a half years California's State Board of Equalization (BOE) has been dunning California resident, Paul Mavrides, a cartoonist, for back sales taxes that Mavrides says he does not owe. The BOE bases its 1991 demand on the assumption that cartoonists are not authors (by law, the BOE cannot require authors to collect sales tax on manuscripts delivered to publishers located in California). The BOE claims that because cartoonists write with pictures and words rather than words alone, they are not writers at all, and do not deserve the exemption given to other authors. Paul Mavrides has consistently maintained that as a comics creator he is unquestionably an author and is entitled to the same exemption the government grants to other authors. The amount of money in dispute in the Mavrides case is less than $5,000. According to the BOE's misinterpretation, in addition to all other California comic authors, creators of visually oriented children's books and editorial cartoonists, no longer considered authors by the state government, are also liable for the sales tax. However, the BOE is not waiting for an established precedent with the Mavrides case - it is already seeking back tax payments from The Creators Syndicate of Los Angeles for editorial cartoons (Herblock, Doug Marlette and Stephen Chapman) that the syndicate distributes to California newspapers. Governor Wilson Backs Illegal Government Action The Universal Press Syndicate and the United Feature Syndicate, despite their out-of-state business locations, are also liable for this sales tax and have registered strong protests with Governor Wilson, stating that they are considering the withdrawal of their cartoon features from the California press market. In response, Governor Wilson, through his Governor's Constituent Affairs Representative, Mark D. Gursky, has decided to back the BOE on this issue, despite the harm the Government's decision will cause to newspapers large and small throughout the state. The comics and editorial pages of all California newspapers will look quite different after a state boycott by these features syndicates. It is only a matter of time before the Board begins taxing children's literature authors and their publishers within California. The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and the Printing Industries of California have registered their own protests with the BOE. Worse yet, small independent publishers, self-publishers and marginally successful authors will soon find themselves unable to financially function under the state-imposed burden of this tax ruling exclusively directed at, and only at, their chosen literary format - unlike any other type of author or publisher - a classic illustration of how the power to tax is also the power to destroy. Under the State Tax Board's redefinition, creators such as Art Spiegleman (Maus), Maurice Sendak (Where The Wild Things Are) and Dr. Seuss (The Cat In The Hat) are no longer considered authors of literary work by the California government; their works are no longer legally defined by the Government as works of literature. State Licensing Authors in Defiance of 1st Amendment Even more onerous is that the BOE ruling has created, for the first time in American history, a system of government licensing of authors. Because of the BOE's requirement that citizens who collect sales taxes for the State must do so with a mandatory state issued Sales Permit, a revocation of this tax license for any reason at all will prevent an author from receiving income from their California-published work and also prevent them from arranging publication contracts. The de facto censorship and governmental control of elemental speech rights (by state tax bureaucrats, no less) is an intolerable and shocking violation of basic Constitutional liberties. This new tax has not been passed by the legislature or signed into law by the Governor. On the contrary, it is a tax imposed by a bureaucratic decision. Ignoring numerous legal precedents, the tax board has read the issue backwards, placing their duty to tax above the rights of the citizenry. A Board staff auditor has admitted that the sales tax Board has no objective standards whatsoever to determine whether an illustration is "incidental" to or inseparable from prose editorial matter. When the Board was asked for the specific criteria they used for this determination, they replied, "There are none. But we know it when we see it." Furthermore, this bureaucratically imposed tax has already wasted thousands of dollars of taxpayer's money in legal fees and may go on to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars more defending an illegal tax. Certainly California is under pressure to generate new sources of revenue income, but eradicating the constitutional guarantees of its citizens' freedom to speak is no solution. "The tax collectors need it spelled out sweetly and simply: Comics are free speech, and you don't put a tax on free speech." Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons) Alarmed by the broad First Amendment implications of the case, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California has filed a legal brief with the Board challenging the tax bureau's ruling. The brief contends that the arbitrary sales tax applicable to comics and other cartoon illustrations creates a "differential taxation" scheme that is clearly unconstitutional. The ACLU, which does not normally become involved in tax issues, has also pledged to litigate on Mr. Mavrides' behalf, if necessary. The brief, authored by Paul Hoffman, Esq., the ACLU Foundation's former Legal Director, argues that the BOE's position violates the first amendment rights of cartoonists by denying them the same sales tax exemption afforded to other authors under California law by creating a "differential taxation" scheme that is clearly unconstitutional. Mr. Mavrides has already filed a brief through his lawyers which deals largely with the BOE's interpretation of California law, and additionally presented Mr. Mavrides' Constitutional claim. "xstop them damned pictures! I don't care so much what the papers write about me- my constituents can't read; but, damn it, they can see pictures." - - Boss Tweed, 1901, responding to the cartoons of Thomas Nast "For some ideas, the picture is the only practical means of expression, or the only one capable of reaching a wide audience," said Mr. Hoffman, "The economic damage to Mr. Mavrides from having to pay this tax is significant, but the damage to our system of free expression is incalculable. Free expression is too important to be sacrificed at the altar of vague regulations that selectively tax illustration." The state's differential taxation scheme could create a myriad of arbitrary and discriminatory taxes against forms of media that use illustrations to convey content and context, additionally placing California publishers and authors at a competitive disadvantage with residents of other states. Paul Mavrides, who was featured as an "American Original" on the 1993 Thanksgiving broadcast of ABC's Nightline, also paints, draws and writes. He has authored: The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers with Gilbert Shelton, The Book of the SubGenius and Revelation X with Ivan Stang (Simon & Schuster pub.), and various political comics. His paintings, drawings and other works have been shown in New York, Paris, Los Angeles, Berlin, San Francisco and San Diego. His poster design for the documentary Comic Book Confidential won the Gold Plaque Award at the 1988 Chicago International Film Festival. He was an invited guest at the 1993 Vancouver International Writer's Festival and his work has appeared in the Village Voice, the New Yorker, the San Francisco Chronicle, Whole Earth Review, Mondo 2000, New Media Magazine and Interview. Mr. Mavrides' legal bills, now approaching $70,000.00, are being paid by the comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a charitable nonprofit organization which defends the First Amendment rights of authors, retailers, publishers and distributors of comic book and cartoon literature. To offer help or for further information call: The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund P.O. Box 693, Northampton, MA 01061 [413] 586-9525 or 1-800-99-CBLDF Contact the California State Board of Equalization and Governor Pete Wilson and let them know your opinion on this issue: PETE WILSON Governor of California Sacramento, CA , 95814 [916] 445-2841 JOHAN KLEHS Chair, State Board of Equalization 450 N Street, MIC:71 Sacramento, CA , 95814-5691 - -- Copyright 1995 by Rev. Ivan Stang / 1st Orthodox Stangian MegaFisTemple Lodge of People's Covenant Church of the Wrath of Dobbs Yeti, Resurrected / The SubGenius Foundation,Inc. PO Box 140306 Dallas TX 75214 / Fax 214-320-1561 / PRABOB http://sunsite.unc.edu/subgenius -- SubSITE of Slack