This is an old, and, to my mind, a tired argument.
The 16th Amendment ALLOWS an income tax! It does not REQUIRE an income tax. It does not REQUIRE an IRS. In fact, the IRS existed before there was an income tax. It is a government invention, and is not mandated by the 16th Amendemnt.
So, we can replace the income tax with the FairTax and abolish the IRS with regular order legislation.
Repealing the 16th Amendment requires more votes in each House and positive votes by 3/4 of the states. That will take a bit longer.
It is best to rid ourselves of the income tax and the IRS and then rid ourselves of the 16th Amendment.
Your point that we could wind up with both an income tax and the FairTax is well taken. HST, nothing in present law prevents that FRom happening tomorrow, except taxpayer outrage and rebellion.
BUT, the American people will not react well to such a move by Congress, and would quickly, IMHO, cause such laws to be repealed.
Likewise, when FairTax is implemented, the legislation calls for abolishing the IRS two years after FairTax legislation is signed into law.
The economic and FReedom benefits of the FairTax are so significant that any attempt to reinstate the income tax would be met with massive resistance.
All that Taxman says above is true but the actual fact is that income taxes have always been legal under the Constitution! If you carefully read the 16th amendment you will see that all it actually did was allows the Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on the United States Census. It exempted income taxes from the constitutional requirements regarding direct taxes, after income taxes on rents, dividends, and interest were ruled to be direct taxes in the court case of Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. (1895).
Text of the 16th amendment:
“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.”