From Jake Towne:
Facts about the Federal Income Tax synthesized for an April 15th handout, available by email. Join your local Tea Party and Tax Day Coalition on April 15th!!
“In a Time of Universal Deceit, Telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act.” – George Orwell, author of 1984
1) The premise behind collecting the federal income tax is a complete farce. The IRS claims the tax is voluntary, whereas any sane American realizes that she or he will go to jail if the tax is not paid. This is evident from not only the legal code, but even from the latest 1040 instructions to the taxpayer! (1A) (1B) (2) (3)
IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman writes that the American taxpayer willing pays income tax “of their own free will” but laments “unfortunately, there will always be some that cheat their fellow citizens by avoiding the payment of their fair share of taxes.” Shulman then infers that IRS enforcement will be “prompt” and “strong” (read: ‘swift’ and ‘merciless’) for this voluntary tax. (4)
The Treasury calls it “our voluntary tax system.” The IRS claims it pursues “enforcement programs to promote voluntary compliance” and establishes “strategies to maximize voluntary tax law compliance by emphasizing customer satisfaction.” (5)
2) The federal income tax was originally a Marxist idea. Karl Marx wrote the 10 Planks of a Communist State in his Communist Manifesto. The second plank, right after the abolition of private property was “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax.” (6) In 1909, this Marxist idea was politically accepted by Americans as retribution against the “evil capitalists” who had caused the Panic of 1907. 100 years later, both political parties now scapegoat all those in the financial industry as “evil doers.” (7) By claiming an ever-increasing amount of your income, the State literally owns your labor.
3) The federal income tax is unconstitutional. The 16th “Income Tax” Amendment of 1913 was likely never officially ratified, and even if it was, in 1916 the Supreme Court ruled “the Sixteenth Amendment does not purport to confer power to levy income taxes” in Brushaber vs. Union Pacific Railroad. (8, 9, 10, 11) The income tax was first placed into circulation as a 1-7% tax on only the very richest Americans. This top tax bracket grew to an onerous 92% in the 1950s. While this receded, for the middle class this tax has grown 500% to 1000% from this time period. (12)
4) The income tax is mostly used for War-Making, the Welfare State, and the National Debt – not general government and law enforcement! The income tax amounted to $1.2 Trillion for 2008. (13) Outlays were for $2.9 Trillion plus the $0.8 Trillion October bailout. (14) We spent just $0.067 Trillion for general government and law enforcement! (15) Out of every tax dollar, the IRS estimates we spend about a quarter on defense, a dime on the national debt, two pennies on general government & law enforcement and the remainder on Social Security (a giant Ponzi scheme) and other welfare and social programs. (16, graph)
5) The $1.2 Trillion federal income tax is unnecessary. Cutting our overseas military empire spending of $1 Trillion per year would justify its elimination. (17) Instead of bailing out the banks for $0.8 Trillion in October and $1.1 Trillion of the Obama stimulus plan, we could have bailed out the increasingly unemployed taxpayer for at least the 2008 tax bill as I argued in January. (18)
6) The federal income tax code is time-consuming, confusing and baffling for many Americans. No wonder – the code itself now consists of 3.4 million words and if printed would fill 7,500 pages. (1B) The code and regulations together were 66,498 pages long in 2006. (19) The taxpayer’s 1040 instructions are 161 pages long. (4) Americans spent 6.4 Billion hours filing their taxes in 2006. (19)
7) America’s “Tax Army” employs more people (1.2 million) than we have armed forces stationed in the United States (0.9 million). (20, 21) Collecting taxes is a completely non-value added task, adding nothing to our economy. Some of our brightest minds – lawyers, accountants, and computer experts – pound away at keyboards trying to figure out either how to plunder more money from others or find loops in the tax code to “save costs” for their clients. The total cost of collecting taxes is estimated at $63 billion, ironically just $4 Billion short of funding general government and law enforcement! (22) (15) The IRS employs 91,000 and will spend $11.6 Billion in 2009 collecting taxes. (23) (24)
Patriots willing to exercise their natural right to peacefully assemble at your closest local protest site (or just start a protest yourself) are encouraged to enlist with both the Tax Day Coalition (TaxDayCoalition.com) and Tax Day Tea Party (TaxDayTeaParty.com) as I have for events on both on and after April 15. If you would like to join me at a very peaceful protest in east-central Pennsylvania on 4/15, please email me or leave a comment below. [For any government officials reading this, I have paid my taxes every year because I do not want to be imprisoned at the moment, and the collective “you” has failed to intimidate or scare me.]
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List of Sources
(1A) The IRS Tax Code. The IRS strangely recommends visiting Cornell University to view the code and they are correct, it’s easier to view. http://www.irs.gov/taxpros/article/0,,id=98137,00.html#irc
(1B) The IRS Tax Code. Easier to search than the IRS or Cornell version. http://www.fourmilab.ch/uscode/26usc/
(2) The Great IRS Hoax, Chapter 5. http://famguardian.org/Publications/GreatIRSHoax/GreatIRSHoax.htm
(3) America: Freedom to Fascism. Recommended free movie. http://freedocumentaries.com/film.php?id=199
(4) IRS 1040 instructions p2/161, http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040.pdf
(5) Edwards, Chris. 2003. “10 Outrageous Facts About the IRS.” Fact #7. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3063
(6) Marx, Karl. 1848. “Manifesto of the Communist Party” p. 21/44. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/manifest.pdf
(7) Armstrong, Martin. 2008. It’s Just Time. p. 12/77. Contemporary visit and extension of Kondratrieff cycles. http://www.contrahour.com/ItsJustTimeMartinArmstrong.pdf
(8) The Constitution of the United States of America. http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
(9) Benson, Bill. “The Law That Never Was.” http://www.thelawthatneverwas.com
(10) Tax Facts, #1 through #19. http://www.voluntarytax.info/tax_facts1.htm
(11) Brushaber vs. Union Pacific Railroad. US Supreme Court, 1916. http://supreme.justia.com/us/240/1/case.html
(12) Quinn, James. 2009. “GRAND ILLUSION – THE FEDERAL RESERVE“ http://www.nolanchart.com/article6123.html
(13) White House. FY 2009 Budget. p. 35/342. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf
(14) White House. FY 2009 Budget. p. 26/342. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf
(15) White House. FY 2009 Budget. p. 59/342. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf
(16) IRS 1040 instructions p91/161, http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040.pdf
(17) Paul, Ron. March 2008. “Intervening Our Way to Economic Ruin.”
http://www.antiwar.com/paul/?articleid=12519
(18) Towne, Jake. January 2009. “Why Obama’s Stimulus Plan Will Fail… and a Better Alternative.” Idea #1. http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=3
(19) Edwards, Chris. 2007. Testimony to House Budget Committee. p. 4/6 http://budget.house.gov/hearings/2007/02.16edwardstestimony.pdf
(20) Edwards, Chris. 2003. “10 Outrageous Facts About the IRS.” Fact #2. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3063
(21) Towne, Jake. April 2009. “America’s Military Empire.” http://www.nolanchart.com/article6271.html
(22) Angier, Chuck. 2008. “Why a Fair Tax Won’t Happen.” http://www.nolanchart.com/article2776.html
(23) Internal Revenue Service, Data Book. 2008. p. 72/81. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/08databk.pdf
(24) Internal Revenue Service, Budget-in-Brief. FY 2009. p. 2/14.
My Comment:
From deep love for the Federal Government and with thanks for the care with which it’s consulted each and everyone of us before spending our money maiming and massacring civilians in countries we’ve never visited and don’t plan to and bailing out billionaires who don’t even live here, I devote the whole of today and tomorrow to my favorite task of chasing paper and instructing the IRS in elementary math.
Yay! May that happy day come where the Spirit of Mencken and sense animates more Americans. That is–there is no morality in paying taxes. Maybe pople will wake up and realise they are getting squeezed harder and harder. In the dark days of 1963 the median earning family paid 14% tax rates, now its 40%….Amazing how many equate paying extortionate taxes as a moral and patriotic duty. I love it when people say I alwasy pay my taxes on time I am a good citizen–guess its inevitable when 50% of earners pay no effective taxes and its all on the back of the other 50%…..Its becoming a problem, the serfs revolted when their taxes hit 30%. In many cases working professionals now pay close to 50% in many jurisidcitons—-and many places want to squeez us more….Sad, sad, sad…..
My plan gets rid of this regressive abortion immediately. (I call it regressive because that’s what it actually is: if a kid just out of school has to pay a greater percentage of his accumulated wealth in taxes as compared to Bill Gates (as is certainly true in many cases), I’d call that regressive.)
If anyone else has a plan to get rid of the Federal income tax and the IRS, I’d sure like to hear about it.
Sorry for the delay in getting comments up. Connection is poor right now because it’s raining heavily.
It’s amazing how people seem to think middle class folk who argue against taxes must be brainwashed by the rich and filled with resentment rather than reason. The argument seems to be that the middle class receives more in benefits than it pays in in taxes – so it should support them.
No one seems to think that voting should be based on something other than what you personally might get out of it. I mean, if by voting I could force all the Indian grocery stores in town to supply me with free naan does that make it moral or right or even economic good sense?
Secondly, it it isn’t even clear I do gain more for services as Jake Towne’s chart shows.
Lila – not directly on topic, but I think of you just about every time I hear about GS, because you were on their case early and often. I saw this outfit,
http://www.goldmansachs666.com/
featured on two very different sites, (exiledonline and counterpunch, that I would be surprised if you visit very often [oops, I just noticed CP on your blogroll-my bad]), and thought it might be of some interest. They are looking for volunteers and running a “webinar” (stupid, dorky term, imo) Wednesday – April 15th at 6PM Eastern. I’m going to check it out, although I’m more interested in bringing down the public-sector criminal enablers than the gang-bankers themselves, what with the revolving door, the distinction is not that clear. Eliot Spitzer, please call your office. All is forgiven and revenge is best served cold, no?
I have a long cherished tradition. I drive my extension form to the post office at precisely 12:00 AM on 4/15. The next two I just mail from home.
Brushaber is a confusing writing. I have pondered it numerous times. The key phrase in my mind, despite its overall murkiness is the line stating that the 16th amendment confers “no new powers.” I believe that wage earners did not file returns until the 1942 Victory Tax Act was passed accompanied by a massive propaganda campaign featering songs from Danny Kaye and lectures from Donald Duck.
I’d have preferred to just allow Japan to save China (and the rest of SE Asia) from Mao. The thought of the Imperial Navy prowling the South China Sea doesn’t bother me much as opposed to the IRS prowling through my wallet…although it’s hard to say they do a better job overall than my ex-wife did.
It’s interesting that I sent a number of pieces on Paulson and market manipulation to Counterpunch in 2006 (for which I have written dozens of pieces and whose editor blurbed my first book – thank you, Jeff and Alex).
They never published them – perhaps they thought it was a sideshow or not important.
Dissident Voice did publish them.
You can find them listed on this site and on the old archive of DV for 2006. You’ll have to google “Hanky Panky at the Counting House” “Fairy Tales from Grimm” and others…just look at the links.
But I take no claim for discovering something new, only for being alert and connecting dots. The information has been there out in the public realm since 1999. I came across it almost as soon as I began researching the housing market in 2005.
And I don’t consider myself an investigative journalist – but a commentator. So, is it ego, careerism, cronyism, political ideology, propaganda, or what that makes people not see?< Journalistic ethical failure is as important as failure in the financial industry... So when journalists criticize the financial industry, it's the pot calling the kettle black. Many of them do not have a moral leg to stand on.
Lila,
I just finished reading the IRC 2009 from front to back and need a glass of water…and so, now, I will file my extension…
It seems easy for banks to come on board with 1/4erly numbers after they have been able to complete their write downs in ’08 and receive their bailout for their new year to give good to wall st…
I find it funny that the gov’t is doling out a plan for the average joe to buy up “toxic assets” when the banks and institutions that invented them want them pissed off…makes you go, hmmmm?! Such a sham! When will this scherade end?…
I appreciate the comment and visits on my blog, but it’s Doug, not Greg. Although, for some reason, you are not the first to use Greg…but anyway…
If I give a bicycle to my niece rather than to a stranger, my selection need not involve any hostile attitude toward the stranger, no judgment that he is of lesser basic moral worth or lesser earned merit than my relative. ,