In 1976, DeGrazia engaged in a protest against the Federal Inheritance Tax. The artist claimed the U.S. Internal Revenue Service rulings made him "a millionaire on paper, but my heirs will have to pay taxes for which there is no money." In his well-publicized protest, DeGrazia rode horseback into the Superstition Mountains and burned about 100 of his paintings, an estimated worth of 1.5 million dollars at the time. Ted, protesting the inheritance tax, burned several hundred originals and prints in the Superstition Mountains c. 1976.