Talk:Joe Banister

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[edit] Spelling of name

The spelling of the name of the individual is shown in various places as "Banister" and "Bannister." Although as I recall the IRS web site shows the latter, I think the former spelling is correct. Conforming edit being made. Yours, Famspear 22:02, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] General comments

Dear fellow editors: I will try to work on this article from time to time, as time permits. I think the article does need quite a bit of tightening, and some more citations and detail. Yours, Famspear 23:05, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Question: How can you Joe Banister be "Disbarred" when that only applies to lawyers? Joe Banister is no lawyer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.30.228.233 (talk • contribs)

Dear User at IP24.30.228.233: As a general rule, in the United States the term "disbarred" does apply to former lawyers -- persons who have lost the license to practice law (generally because of failure to follow the rules).

There are, however, exceptions to that rule. Under 31 C.F.R. sections 10.79 and 10.80, an individual authorized to practice before the Internal Revenue Service of the United States Department of the Treasury (even a non-lawyer) may have that authorization to practice terminated through "disbarment," and such a person is "disbarred" under the law.

Another example of this use of the term may be found with respect to the United States Tax Court. Persons who are not lawyers may, by law, be admitted to the bar of the Tax Court and, of course, may be disbarred under certain circumstances. Yours, Famspear 14:47, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

PS - On the disbarment of persons from practice before the IRS, see also 31 C.F.R. sections 10.60 and 10.76. Famspear 14:54, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unsourced commentary

The following commentary was inserted by an anonymous editor, and has been moved to here:

Joe however, never cared about being disbarred in the first place because the only reason he became a CPA was to enforce the law. Two of his brothers are police officers and one is a fireman. He came from a family of public officials and his main goal initially when he joined the IRS was to uphold the law. Banister has declared his innocence all along and even the jury could not a find any reason to convict him. They were quoted during after the trial, "what the hell are we doing here"? Banister went to Jesuit Catholic schools his whole life and is a true Christian. He had letters of recommendations from his superiors and was even promoted. One juror even said, "the only reason the government had gone after Joe was because he is a whistle blower who found out inconsistencies in the tax code". When he took the evidence to his boss to have them explain to him exactly if he was doing the right thing in trying to enforce a law that never existed, they expedited his resignation". Joe has said, "he couldn't continue to work for an organization that didn't tell the truth and that ruined peoples lives".

It's unclear whether this is simply an anonymous user's own commentary, or whether it was copied and pasted from somewhere, or whether parts can be salvaged, sourced, and used in the article. Yours, Famspear 19:13, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Same thing again, with different text:

Banister has said however, "that he has no interest in representing anyone before the IRS". When I found my discoveries of the tax code, I took it up to my chief and asked him to explain to me if what I found was true or not and they never answered me all they did was ask for my resignation and expedited it. They have yet to answer my question all they did was try and drum up these bogus charges against me". Joe also added that "the main reason I was acquitted of all charges was because the government had no case against him and the jury didn't even know why they were trying to prosecute him". Basically, they tried to discredit and silence him by wanting him behind bars for no reason other than to shut him up for "telling the truth".

Needs to be sourced, and POV toned down. Famspear 17:22, 26 October 2007 (UTC)