Court ruling shakes ground under IRS

Town Hall ^ | 8/29/2006 | Bruce Bartlett

[Uncledave]

"... there has been a long-term tendency for the IRS to push the limit of what can be considered taxable income. Now, a federal court has said there is a constitutional limit."

[goldstategop]

The only solution is to repeal the 16th Amendment and abolish the IRS. That's what brought us Big Government that we have today.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[traditional1]

"Now, clearly, the IRS is not going to do any of these things, nor would Congress allow it to do so."

Don't be on it....they'd tax every use of a commode, it they could install squat-counters.....there's no end to what they will attempt to tax.

[tacticalogic]

The only solution is to repeal the 16th Amendment and abolish the IRS. That's what brought us Big Government that we have today.

I don't think you're giving the New Deal and deficit spending nearly enough credit where credit is due.

[submarinerswife]

Taxing the dead is indication enough, wouldn't you say?

[q_an_a]

this is Bush's fault. He should have appointed real conservatives to the court. we should all complain about the fact that the IRS does not have free rein over all of us and the Bush is at fault for appointing judges that take the side of the people. Where are the business people who protest that the little guy is able to keep Her money? Don't the DemocRATS realize the injustice of a woman keeping money from an accident? Where are the people who complain about new ropes and Bush not doing his job for conservatives? /rant off

[goldstategop]

Without the income tax, we very likely would have no New Deal or deficit spending.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[Concho]

Boortz says that it takes 1/3 of the money that the IRS extorts from the citizens just to fund the IRS. That isnt right, it just isnt right. They need to be done away with. They are worse than the Nazis of WWII.

[tacticalogic]

I don't see how the absence of an income tax would keep them from spending money they don't have.

[traditional1]

"Taxing the dead is indication enough, wouldn't you say?"

Absolutely beyond the pale. I think that's why the expression ends with "death and taxes", as opposed to "taxes and death".....in the first instance, even the taxes come AFTER death in the sentence!

[cotton1706]

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

The wording is pretty plain and far too broad. We being strict constructionists, "from whatever source derived" unfortunately could and does mean from whatever source derived. Only a biased interpretation could see other meanings in the plain language. This amendment needs to go.

[tacticalogic]

The purpose of taxes is supposed to be to raise money to run the government. The socialists have turned the tax system to the task of wealth redistribution and made it a bureaucratic quagmire.

[sergeantdave]

"The problem is that the very concept of income itself has never been defined in the tax law. It is pretty much whatever the IRS says it is."

Does anyone know where in the constitutional penumbra it says that unelected, unaccountable executive branch bureaucrats can write law? I always thought only legislators can write law.

[n-tres-ted]

Thanks for the post, Uncledave. BB is on target on this one. It does open the door to radical reform, specifically a consumption tax, and the best design for doing so is the Fair Tax (HR 25, S 25). Another point of attack is the current taxation of the inflated value of currency as income. Much of what is taxed as income, including particularly capital gains, is really just compensation for the loss of value in the dollar, courtesy of the Federal Reserve. Of course, the problem in all this is the Supreme Court's "swingman" presently, Anthony Kennedy, who is not friendly to anything requiring radical reform. Good chance he will go with the "lefties" on the Court.

[firewalk]

.

[Concho]

Time for the people to take the matters into their own hands and straighten things up. Either do away with the IRS and institute a fair tax, or have a TAX REVOLT, and stop their money dead until there are referendums where the people can have a voice. The Kongresskritters are not representing the people, they are representing themselves and big government. It is time that the People re-aligned the processes.

Whining about it on FR does not one lick of good. It takes contacting those politicians and reminding them that there are elections coming up and that they need to act in a responsible fashion.

[Publius6961]

BUMP!

[tacticalogic]

Whining about it on FR does not one lick of good. It takes contacting those politicians and reminding them that there are elections coming up and that they need to act in a responsible fashion.

If we can't do "one lick of good" here, then FR is a failure. I don't think that's the case. Yes, we need to contact our representatives, both individually and collectively. We also need to work on finding ways to keep the influence of the unelected bureaucrats that inhabit the beltway from diluting that message. In many ways they have better access to and more opportunity to influence our representatives than we do, and will act in their own best interest.

[Enterprise]

That is why the death tax is so insidious and downright criminal. Let's say Mr. Jones has worked hard, paid all the taxes, and accumulated a total wealth valued at one million dollars. On May 9, all is well. On May 10, Mr. Jones dies, and the IRS rushes in to tax confiscate what Mr. Jones left behind. So what has changed? Did his earnings and wealth go up? NO - he DIED! What he left behind is deemed "income" by the IRS because it is left to his family. Grave robbing and blood sucking are the appropriate descriptors here. Taxation it ISN'T!