Anoka Woman Who Doesn't Believe In Money Gets 2 Years For Tax Evasion

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A 56-year-old Anoka, Minnesota, woman who told the IRS "there is no such thing as money" was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison by a judge who held a less existential view of U.S. currency and other monetary instruments.

Tami Mae May had not paid federal taxes for more than seven years, claiming that she and her husband were not citizens of the United States but permanent residents of the "Kingdom of Heaven."

May pleaded guilty in 2014 to obstructing IRS laws, an offense she apparently took lightly: She said her social security number was a "corporate fiction" and that her family's excavating business was foreign trust and she was the trustee.

But the U.S. Attorney's Office called her opinion on the non-existence of money "nonsensical" and part of a "tax-defier scheme."

May was told in 2005 that her excavating business owed tax debt, penalties and interest, which the IRS said caused her to embark on an eight-year campaign of frivolous filings.

U.S. District Court Judge David S. Doty found that the Mays were not official residents of the Kingdom of Heaven and sentenced May to two years in prison and to pay $192,495 in restitution.