Meet Elias Bloch

The courageous accountant who changed the history of tax evasion.

Few pilots could land a twin engine plane in a harvested wheat field as well as Elias Bloch. He’d done it millions of times. He taxied to the barn to meet six-time Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Macon Itupp.

“Mr. Bloch, I want to share your story with the world. The real story, about the courageous accountant who changed the history of tax evasion in America.”

“Well sir,” Bloch began, “conquering the IRS is no crime. And I knew there must be millions of farmers across the Midwest who couldn’t possibly understand all the tax laws. Being a private pilot, it occurred to me that I could reach out and help those folks, along with millions of fertilizer distributors, and millions of feed salesmen to unravel the millions of IRS forms.”

“For simple farmers, your offer must’ve been an easy sale.”

“It was. Mostly I dealt with one family at a time, Macon, explaining tax tables around the kitchen table, untangling the mysteries of adjusted cost basis ratios with barnyard-based anecdotes, and teaching creative ways to empower deductions (like adopting a baby goat for the child tax credit).”

“Amazing. And you went on to found Finding Revenue Among Unusual Deductions (FRAUD), America’s largest tax preparation fraternal group with millions of members.”

“Indeed. And I’m proud that they adopted my personal motto as their tax time battle cry, ‘How much do you WANT to pay?’”

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When Macon Itupp’s book was published, Elias’ sons Henry W. and Richard A. Block, who founded H & R Block while cleverly changing the spelling of their surnames to avoid estate taxes, congratulated Itupp and declared, "Every word in this amazing, action infused volume approaches the unbridled truth. You won't be able to put it down."