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What Law Requires Us To Pay Taxes?
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Hardly a week goes by when someone doesn’t discover my page on IRS tax brackets and leaves a comment about how there is no law requiring us to pay income taxes. Every once and a while, you hear a story about someone refusing to pay their taxes and getting locked up and penalized for it. Case in point, just last month a couple in New York were convicted, between them, of seven felony counts (5 counts of tax evasion and 2 counts of conspiring to defraud the government).
You are legally required to pay income tax. To argue otherwise is at best a political statement (which I think is fine, it’s our First Amendment right) and at worst a one way trip to the slammer.
Want to know which law requires it? Read on.
Internal Revenue Code
Tax law itself is codified in the Internal Revenue Code, which is known as Title 26 in the United States Code. The United States Code, as defined by the Government Printing Office, is the codification of general and permanent laws of the United States. It’s divided into fifty “titles” (or volumes) and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives every six years, with supplements being made available between editions. In layman’s terms, the United States Code is the collection of laws passed by the legislature and signed by the executive – the Code is law.
Title 26 covers the Internal Revenue Code. The Code itself is a collection of laws that were passed by Congress and bits and amendments were passed through the years. When people talk about AMT reform, they’re talking about passing amendments to adjust who gets affected by the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Which part of the Internal Revenue Code requires us the pay taxes? Section 1 (26 U.S.C. § 1), it states:
There is hereby imposed on the taxable income of every individual … who is not a married individual a tax determined in accordance with the following table ….
There you have it, right in the first section of the Code. When taxes are due is set in Section 6076: “[R]eturns made on the basis of the calendar year shall be filed on or before the 15th day of April following the close of the calendar year.” If you are unconvinced, I think I’ve discovered the single most valuable resource on the Internet with regards to the mandatory nature of income tax at Jon Siegel’s Income Tax Page. If you’re really interested, you could spend a good hour poking around at everything in there. Professor Siegel is a Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School, he knows his stuff.
Finally, if you have any other frivolous tax arguments, the IRS has refuted practically all of them by now, including the one about how payment of tax is voluntary. Maybe you can find a new one and get yours added to the list!
(Photo: blmurch )
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Interesting! I have had several people tell me that we shouldn’t have to pay, and it’s one big conspiracy!
Not sure that’s the case.
Thanks for the info.
LOL! Ok, this is funny! In Canada we have no choice but to pay taxes – the feds take their cut right out of each check.
Both sides are right…to a certain extent. We do have to pay taxes. However, the law requiring us to pay taxes is not constitutional.
Thanks,
Nate
Nate said “However, the law requiring us to pay taxes is not constitutional.”
The 16th Amendment to the US Constitution:
“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.”
I don’t see how anyone could argue its unconstitutional since its explicitly in there.
That Amendment wasn’t even ratified properly. does not give Congress the right to tax people’s incomes.
All taxes levied by Congress have to be uniform and based on the Census, as proscribed in Section 9, Clause 4 and Section 2, Clause 3. The income tax is neither.
Of course, it really doesn’t matter. The government has enough guns to force you to pay the income tax, thus you have to pay it.
Claims that the 16th amendment isn’t valid are frivolous and bogus attempts by tax evaders. US courts have already dismissed the argument that the 16th amendment wasn’t ratified properly.
Well in the 80’s the suprime court in California actueally found it UN-constitutional and ruled we are not required to pat an income tax.
I Have yet to pay income taxes. the IRS comes at me each year, i explain to them i am not legally required to pay the agent says i am sorry for bothering you and they leave me alone for a another year or 2. They haven’t bothered me for 3 years actually maybe they made a note of it. lol none the less i am not in jail and my wages have not been messed with.
Yeah but if you look the 16th amendment was never ratified by the states there for its not law . Check that out and let me know what u think bout that ? If it was never ratified that means it was never law . There are several cases in the supreme court where they declared taxes on labor unconstitutional.
1. That ammendment wasn’t ratified by a suffcient number of states. So it should actually be seen as invalid. However it was basically just “thrown in there” by the government amnd now we are just supposed to “deal with it”
2. Originally the constitution was supposed to protect us from taxation without representation which coincidentally was one of the key reasons the revolutionary war was fought for. However this ammendment (that wasn’t ratified) does the opposite and imposes taxation without representation which is exactly what the quote you posted says.
Bingo.
There WAS a law that said that Blacks needed to attend different schools than Whites.
However that is UNCONSTITIUIONAL therefore NULL AND VOID, just as the Income Tax should be.
Bingo,
The jim crow laws were declared Unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and struck down. The Supreme Court has not done so with income taxes.
The exact opposite has happened when it has come to most tax laws. The courts have upheld income taxes again again.
If you want to argue that the Court cannot decide what is and what isn’t constitutional then anybody could do as they please as we would all individually be arbiters of the law.
The problem there is that upholding income tax is in the better interest of courts. In actuality it can be seen as a conflict of interest.
The “Internal Revenue Code” is not a law; they are guidelines created by the executive branch on how the IRS should tax the public, and how the public should be obedient and pay the taxes.
That being said, the “code” was never created by the legislative branch (called a Bill) and was never voted on to become a law. Why not?
Because of what Jim mentioned regarding the 16th amendment to the Constitution. Great and dandy; it’s an amendment, and amendments are laws.
Hold on there smokey, not in this particular case. Amendments must be legally ratified, and the 16th was never properly ratified as Krod mentioned. This makes the “amendment” technically not a law.
The problem is that the IRS has been given WAY too much power in its execution of their “code”. Don’t pay your taxes because its not a law, seems logical right? Wrong. This is not a democracy, law doesn’t matter. The police state swoops down on you, takes your house, charges you with tax evasion, and makes a case based off the fact that you didn’t pay taxes because you didn’t abide by the “code.”
However, most people by this point (especially after the IRS seizes everything before a trial), are not in a state where they could defend their action; would you want to fight the IRS when they seize your crap? No, you wouldn’t.
How are they able to seize your crap before you go trial? Easy: the “code” says you can, duh. I’m scared of the IRS, thats why I pay my taxes; not because it’s a law. I accept the fact that we don’t live in a republic free-enterprise state (bail-out what?).
Wake up people, we live in an emerging neo-police socialized state. Both parties like bailouts, yum. Yum yum bailouts. More money for both parties to stick into their corporations. Yum yum. Who are the republicans? Who are the democrats? Cartels. Both cartels vying for money and power in the new policed socialized state.
I’m proud to be an American, are you?
Mike, I think you are confusing “Regulations” with the “Internal Revenue Code”. Regulations are the rules that the IRS has created to implement the IRC pursuant to rulemaking authority granted to it by Congress in the IRC. The “Internal Revenue Code” is the law passed by Congress. Check out Professor Siegel’s website for more details.
You people never get it.
I’m sorry I dont mean to put you down but there ARE other alternatives. Alternatives that we as citazens are required by our constitution to act upon.
Revolution.
The constitution itself clearly states…
“…when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security.”
Our government does not have our best interest at heart. In fact our government seeks to enslave us and the rest of the world. Something must be done and it is our right and duty to see that it is..
I saw this page some time ago. It does make you think about things related to taxation.
www supremelaw org/sls/31answers htm
What makes me mad is that so many government officials don’t seem to pay taxes and get away with it. Even if they are found to not pay taxes, nothing really happens with them. If you are I were to not pay taxes, we would have stiff penalties and sent to jail. Just seems pretty mixed up.
I have no problem with paying an income tax… though I can’t help but think there’s a better way to fund government expenditures. However, we pay (IMHO) far too much in income taxes. If government could get it’s spending in line with reality…. then we could lower taxes across the board… and folks like you and I could keep more of our earned income.
Living in the US of A, that’s not likely to ever happen. Oh, and legality aside, Krod has a point – the US has more than enough guns to enforce payment of taxes.
Your income tax doesn’t fund a single government program. Not one single cent goes to where you think it does.
Income tax is used to pay back the interest the on the money teh Federal Reserve has loaned to the Government so we can have money and debt plus more debt.
In other words every single cent we pay in income tax winds up in the pockets of some greedy filthy low life scum sucking international banker.
I’ve hear many times the 16th amendment wasn’t ratified correctly, this led to the rise of big government. I also hear the county sheriff has the right to throw the IRS out of the county, of course 99.9% of county sheriffs don’t know this.
Here is a great link to Harry Reid trying to clarify the fact that our system of taxation is voluntary…I bet he is confusing lots of people in the process.
http://www.freeliberal.com/blog/archives/003277.php
All I have to say is we the people let things happin. We don’t stand up for are rights anymore. There are millions of people in America that are brain washed and still slaves to the worlds bs. Yes slaverly still is here its just more organized. And them taxing us is proof stuff will never change until people stand up for there rights and stop being controled peace.
First, The federal income tax is unconstitutional because it is not apportioned as the Constitution clearly states all taxes must be. Second, the 16th Amendment was never ratified according to the procedures as set forth in the Constitution. Third, the income tax (when you read the law) only applies to businesses and corporations. There is nothing in the law that requires an individual to pay a personal income tax.
The distinction is in legal wording. Income is a legal word that applies to business profits. Earnings is a legal word that applies to wages, etc. based on an individuals labor.
Even the IRS’s own documents substantiate this fact. The IRS clearly states that the income tax, as it applies to an individual, is a voluntary tax. Furthermore, under IRS regulations, it states that the IRS has the authority to seize business property and assets. It has no power to seize personal property or assets.
But if other people want to keep paying taxes that they have no legal need to pay then they can keep paying. The IRS won’t stop them.
Further more, the amount of revenue that the IRS generates each year, based on the taxation of personal income, fails to pay for anything in the Federal government budget aside from interest on the national debt. Any monkey can see that this has been the case since the income tax and the federal reserve came into existence with each budget year.
It’s funny how a lot of you run to defend your slave masters! First of all, all of your income tax goes into the pockets of private bankers known as the Federal Reserve. Not one cent goes to pay for any government function! Everything is taxed from gasoline to your property taxes, that money goes to pay for services NOT the income tax!
Furthermore the supreme court has ruled that the 16th amendment gave the IRS “No new taxing powers”. So if they didn’t have it before, they didn’t have it afterwords!
And the supreme court has also defined income as “profits or gains” from corporate activity.
To put it simply. If you run a business where you pay employees to do the work, you owe taxes on the profit of the business. That’s perfectly legal. But you, the average American working 9-5 does not have “income” as defined by the supreme court and the tax code.
No one is arguing that the tax code is written incorrectly. It’s just very misunderstood.
Why does the government continue to put people in jail over a debt owed to a private banking system?? This is tyranny! Why not sit down with the “tax protesters” and very clearly say “this is where you are required to pay”.
Take Ed and Elaine Brown for example. An elderly couple who wanted nothing more than to see the law they were allegedly breaking. Instead the government spent millions of dollars to take them down and did so with violence and force rather than simply saying “here is the law. Now please pay the banking cartels their money”.
We are living in tyranny! Do I pay my income tax? Hell yes. Is there a law to do so? No! But they have the guns.
But tell me, is this America? This is what our forefathers died for? Anyone who doesn’t see the tyranny and defends the slave masters doesn’t deserve to breathe the air of this country!
1) The term “income tax” can be used by the US government and its courts to
If the person making a payment to you wants to report the payment even
describe revenue laws generally, or it can be used to describe a specific type
of tax.
2) 16th Amendment “income” and the ordinary “compensation for labor” of the
average American are not the same thing.
3) Each subtitle (A through E) of the IRC imposes a completely different type of
tax and subtitle C taxes are not the same tax as subtitle A taxes.
4) No tax law can apply to you if in doing so it would violate one or more of your
“unalienable rights” (unless it is a direct tax).
5) One of your unalienable rights is to exchange your labor for other forms of
property (including money) without having to give a percentage to the
government. The only way the government can tax such compensation is
with a direct tax, and Congress has not imposed a direct tax upon
compensation for labor.
6) You need not provide an identifying number if you’ve determined the
transaction is not taxable.
7) No reporting is required if you’ve determined that the transaction is not
taxable to you.
after you’ve made the determination that it not a taxable transaction, that
person may do so without a number and must affix the appropriate affidavit
to the information return. [Click on Contact Us for the affidavit.]
9) Under the regulations created by the Secretary of the Treasury for tax
matters, a person making a payment to you has no other remedy than the
steps specified in item 8 if you refuse to provide a number. Actions such as
firing you, or withholding payments owed, are not lawful options because no
law specifies such conduct as a remedy.
10) It is our responsibility to inform our friends and neighbors of these truths.
Sending them the URL for this page
[www.originalintent.org/fedincometax.shtml] is one great way to do that!
Most are ignorant or afraid or both. We should endeavor to cure their
ignorance and give them sufficient information and support so that they need
no longer fear the IRS.
11) Despite the illegal and immoral conduct of the government [most notably the
Treasury Department, the IRS, and the US Department of Justice, Tax
Division] the truth is that US Individual Income Tax applies primarily to
aliens and only to working American Citizens in very narrow circumstances
that are not generally applicable to the public at large.
If it was not a law to pay taxes, then obviously by now, with the many, many people that have fought having to pay taxes…someone, somewhere would have won a court case and not had to pay taxes therefore opening it up to everyone not having to pay taxes…
…this has not been done…pay your taxes, it’s the law
if we don’t have to file our taxes! then why is that people’s are getting in troubles with the IRS?
Any lawyer would know that terms used in legal documents often have specific definitions for the purpose of said documents. If we look at title 26 what are the definitions of:
1. Individuals
2. Income
3. Employees
4. Employers
5. Wages
If you look, you will find the law does say we have to pay taxes. The question isn’t if we do or not. The question is which ones of us are taxpayers and which ones of us are NOT taxpayers.
Long v. Rasmussen, 281 F. 236 (1922)
“The revenue laws are a code or system in regulation of tax assessment and collection. They relate to taxpayers, and not to nontaxpayers. The latter are without their scope. No procedure is prescribed for nontaxpayers, and no attempt is made to annul any of their rights and remedies in due course of law. With them Congress does not assume to deal, and they are neither of the subject nor of the object of the revenue laws…”
[Long v. Rasmussen, 281 F. 236 (1922)]
The IRS failed to actually define the word “Income” anywhere in their IR Code manual.
Therefore it falls to the definition that is given by the US Constitution in article 1.
Income is described there as profit from corporate gain. This excludes wages from labor and services. Also the US Supreme court found that it is an excise tax and therefore also doesn’t apply to work wages.
You might look at the case of Atty Tom Cryer who did beat the IRS along with several others.
It’s also interesting that in the IR code manual, that it specifically states that people assess their tax liability and pay on a voluntary basis. This is also stated in Federal tax regulation 601.602
And as one comment noted, the 16th Amendment was never legally ratified as at least 13 states broke the laws in their own state constitutions by voting on it before their next legislative meeting was held as required by state laws. Sec. of State Knox needed 36 state votes-he never legally got them.
In fact it appears that the Sec of State in 1911, might have been bribed by those in the federal banking system to try and pass the 16th amendment as a way to collect the ‘interest’ from the national debt so as to gain control of the nation’s wealth.
These guys make Madoff look like a boyscout in comparison with the ripoff they’ve done to this country.
Plus the Supreme court also ruled that the 16th didn’t give anymore power to Congress than it already had because they have the power to lay taxes on the land as per the GUIDELINES of the Constitution. The Constitution was specific that all taxes had to be apportioned to the populous. To go against this would be have to be based on corruption and greed.
Most of the federal taxes goes into their pockets. Some goes to the DOD and some goes to appropriate programs.
If you file a return you then enter into a type of legal contract with the government.
At that point you are liable.
If you don’t then by legal rights under the US Constitution it’s strictly voluntary!