Up the IRS, Inc. was the name of a "group," founded by Dean Harvey Hicks in the mid 1980s, that was responsible for several terrorist bombings against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in California. <p><br />As Hicks was the group's sole member, Up the IRS, Inc. was a way for him to anonymously claim responsibility for his attacks, as well as to show his disapproval of the IRS. Hicks' violence was in response to an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 1981 audit in which he was fined $8,500 in back taxes. In addition, Hicks apparently had become incensed after an IRS employee years earlier had been rude to him over the telephone and had ''laughed'' at him. During the time of the bombings, Hick's behavior had described by his neighbors as "erratic" and he had allegedly threatened to shoot both a census taker and meter reader on separate occasions. All utility meters were moved outside his barbed wire-topped fence after the incident.  <p><br />From March 1986 to 1991, in six separate incidents -- including two initial strikes targeting the Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel -- Hicks fired homemade mortar rounds at buildings housing IRS offices or tied pipe bombs to nearby power poles. In one case, Hicks exploded a car bomb in an underground garage of the IRS facility in Los Angeles. Around February 22, 1990, Hicks parked a truck, loaded with approximately 2,000 pounds of explosives composed of Ammonium Nitrate fuel oil, outside a building housing IRS offices. Timers launched homemade mortars from the vehicle, igniting it. Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire before the fuel exploded. Hicks had attacked this building on two previous occasions.  <p><br />These attacks were designed to terrorize IRS employees in retribution and became increasingly violent and sophisticated. In addition, the majority of the attacks either took place on or the explosive devices were placed on Mondays, indicating that maximum harm was intended.  Despite this, no personal injuries occurred as a result of the bombings, and only material damage was reported. Hicks claimed responsibility through a note, signed by Up the IRS, Inc. to the editor of the Fresno Bee, a local newspaper, for the April 1, 1991 bombing. He was arrested on July 11,1991 at his residence in Costa Mesa, California.  No known relationship between Up the IRS, Inc. and other terrorist or political groups exists. <br />