Chiropractor faces charges of evading tax payments

An East Wenatchee chiropractor and tax protester who has been locked in a lengthy battle with the Internal Revenue Service was arrested Tuesday on four counts of income tax evasion.

Biffer A. Wellendorf was released without bond after an appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno. Wellendorf, 49, is named in a four-count indictment accusing him of four counts of willful failure to file his federal income tax returns. The indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in Spokane.

He is accused of not filing income tax returns in 1998 through 2001. The indictment says Wellendorf had income of $6,950 in 1998 and $7,050 in 1999, but failed to file a return. In 2000, the indictment says, he had an income of $7,200, followed by an income of $7,450 in 2001. He also allegedly failed to file returns in those years.

If convicted, Wellendorf faces a maximum possible term of four years in prison and fines totaling $400,000. He also could be required to pay any taxes he owes.

In 2002, Wellendorf spent 129 days in the Spokane County Jail after being found in contempt of court by U.S. District Court Judge Frem Nielsen. The tax protester was found in contempt after he refused over a period of several months to turn over his tax and business records sought under an IRS summons.

Wellendorf told the court on several occasions that he would comply with the tax summons, but IRS agents testified that he failed to produce the records at various scheduled meetings.

The chiropractor, acting as his own attorney, argued that he was not a taxpayer as defined by federal law. At one point, he asked the court to quash the IRS summons, but the judge denied that request.

Wellendorf was released when the federal judge decided that there was no longer legal justification to keep him locked up.

The IRS served a summons on Wellendorf in 2000 in an attempt to force him to surrender his business records for the years 1993-1999. The IRS contended Wellendorf did not pay income taxes during those years.