Posted on 09/26/2012 4:42:57 AM PDT by wesagain
The curse of employer withholding from our paychecks was started to support the “war tax” of WWII. However when the war tax was eliminated by Congress the withholding was continued by the IRS.
It isn’t a tax, it’s a penalty....
The definition of ‘is’ might actually work in our favor for once.
I could just as easily argue interest on money in my bank is a mutually agreed upon exchange of me letting them say they’re holding my money for money. That is not fundamentally different from a n exchange of laborious for wages.
Regardless of case law, the entire concept of seizing what belongs to a man more than anything except his soul (the fruit of his physical or mental labor) is an evil concept. It is legalized slavery to the state.
That's why we have more than half the U.S. Citizens paying NO INCOME TAX AT ALL, while the productive ones are FORCED to pay for handouts. If you wanna tax "income", then start taxing ALL Welfare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, EBT's, etc., and let's ALL pay our "Fair and Equal Share".
That said, I'm not sure I buy this particular argument.
Short of outright repeal, which I would dearly love to see, I think the better Constitutional arguments against the current tax system are those that address the following:
Notwithstanding our 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination, as well as our 9th Amendment right to privacy (see Roe v. Wade), the government requires us to provide a tax return signed under penalty of perjury, in which we are obligated to provide detailed testimony regarding every aspect of our most private financial activities and relationships, legal or otherwise.
Notwithstanding our 4th Amendment rights against search and seizure, any American citizen is subject at any time -- even in the complete absence of probable cause to an intrusive federal audit in which the government has the unlimited power to demand and search our private papers and financial records.
So even though the 16th amendment is, by definition, "the supreme law of the land," I don't see where it authorizes the federal government to violate our other Constitutional rights, which were NOT repealed by the 16th amendment.
I can see the logic of his argument about wages and salaries not being income. Unfortunately for all of us the Supreme Court is totally politicized. In an ideal world these cases would be looked at on a logical basis. In this one though? Ain’t gonna happen.
Well, it is an exchange of something for something. It’s not them giving you something (money) for nothing.
It’s not like winning the lottery which would be almost (except for the cost of the ticket) all pure profit.
“Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons, and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim when he defends himself as a criminal. In short, there is a legal plunder...”
“Socialism Is Legal Plunder”
Bastiat
Good post, good thread.
No, that’s a baby
Here are two questions that the IRS is not able to answer.
1) Which statute establishes my liability for a federal income tax?
2) Which statue establishes the requirement that I file a federal income tax return?
For each question above, please cite the title, subtitle, section and operative language.
The IRS never answers these questions. The answers do not exist.
What I have never understood about the income tax is how applying it unequaly is constitutional.
It seems the equal protection clause would prevent the government from taxing different people a different rate.
Bump
Yes, that’s how I see it. Of course the probable outcome is that the Supreme Court will set down a definitive definition of the term “income”. And we will go on from there.
Of course if that happens then a lot of wiggle room will be taken away from the IRS and Employers and Employees just might come up with a different form of compensation. Now that would be interesting, don’t you think?
When America was founded you could not tax a man’s labor nor his property. My how things have changed!
I wish someday the “Progressive Tax”, ie, the more you make, the higher the Tax Rate, was found Un-Constitutional from the fact that it is not “Applied Equally” to all.
This was the point where it is no longer the Government by the people but Government versus the people.
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