[al_possum39]

The distinction between the direct tax and indirect tax being in regard to who pays the tax, the owner(direct), or the the purchaser(indirect) of service, goods, real or personal property.

It seems that, by this definition, the employer would have to pay the income tax for it to be considered indirect and if the employee pays it then it is a direct tax.

[ancient_geezer]

It's the event or exchange(i.e. activity) that is taxed, as opposed to the property, that makes it indirect.

Sale of anything, constitutes commerce. Either side can be taxed, (e.g. Duty paid by the seller, excise paid by the purchaser of (goods, property, labor or service).

Charles C. Stewart Machine Co. v. Davis (1937), 301 U.S. 548:

• The tax, which is described in the statute as an excise, is laid with uniformity throughout the United States as a duty, an impost, or an excise upon the relation of employment.

• "But natural rights, so called, are as much subject to taxation as rights of lesser importance. An excise is not limited to vocations or activities that may be prohibited altogether. It is not limited to those that are the outcome of a franchise. It extends to vocations or activities pursued as of common right."

• Employment is a business relation, if not itself a business. It is a relation without which business could seldom be carried on effectively. The power to tax the activities and relations that constitute a calling considered as a unit is the power to tax any of them. The whole includes the parts. Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Wallace, 288 U.S. 249, 267 , 268 S., 53 S.Ct. 345, 349, 350, 87 A.L.R. 1191

House Congressional Record, March 27, 1943, pg. 2580:

• "The income tax is, therefore, not a tax on income as such. It is an excise tax with respect to certain activities and privileges (the type 3 and 4 taxes) which is measured by reference to the income which they produce. The income is not the subject of the tax; it is the basis for determining the amount of tax."

Even both sides of the transaction can be taxed, as in the FICA.

HELVERING v. DAVIS, 301 U.S. 619 (1937)

• Title VIII(Social Security Act), as we have said, lays two different types of tax, an 'income tax on employees,' and 'an excise tax on employers.' The income tax on employees is measured by wages paid during the calendar year. Section 801 [26 USC 3101]. The excise tax on the employer [26 USC 3111] is to be paid 'with respect to having individuals in his employ,' and, like the tax on employees, is measured by wages.
• . The proceeds of both taxes are to be paid into the Treasury like internal revenue taxes generally, and are not ear-marked in any way. Section 807(a)[26 USC 3501]. There are penalties for nonpayment. Section 807(c), [26 USC 7203].

The primary factor to distinguish is whether or not property is taxed merely upon the fact of ownership thereof or not. If an exchange or event is involved in transfer of ownership from one person to another, then the tax is deemed indirect as a consequence of being in the stream of commerce.

The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787
(Farrand's Records)
James Mchenry before the Maryland House of Delegates.
Maryland Novr. 29th 1787--
Appendix A, CXLVIa, page 149, S9.

"Convention have also provided against any direct or Capitation Tax but according to an equal proportion among the respective States: This was thought a necessary precaution though it was the idea of every one that government would seldom have recourse to direct Taxation, and that the objects of Commerce would be more than Sufficient to answer the common exigencies of State and should further supplies be necessary, the power of Congress would not be exercised while the respective States would raise those supplies in any other manner more suitable to their own inclinations --"

A LAW DICTIONARY
by John Bouvier, Revised Sixth Edition, 1856:
"COMMERCE, trade, contracts.
The exchange of commodities for commodities; considered in a legal point of view, it consists in the various agreements which have for their object to facilitate the exchange of the products of the earth or industry of man, with an intent to realize a profit. Pard. Dr. Coin. n. 1. In a narrower sense, commerce signifies any reciprocal agreements between two persons, by which one delivers to the other a thing, which the latter accepts, and for which he pays a consideration; if the consideration be money, it is called a sale; if any other thing than money, it is called exchange or barter. Domat, Dr. Pub. liv. 1, tit. 7, s. 1, n. "

As opposed to static ownership of property by a single person or entity to which direct taxes apply.

[ancient_geezer]

One might consider that government and law, generally should only apply to interrelationships between person's.

That which has as its subject the lone individual acting in isolation of all others cannot be the subject of a just law.

The need for equal application and protection of law, can only consider two or more persons by the very nature of meaning of the term "equal". Any other construction becomes meaningless.

Under the Constitution, that which impacts persons in plural as in "common defense", or "general welfare" is the subject of national government. All else is beyond the reach of national taxation and must of necessity go through the state or left to the individual by the very wording of the enumerated powers of the Constitution in Article I Section 8 and the 9th & 10th amendments to the Constitution upholding that interpretation.