Don’t you wish you didn’t have to pay taxes? Well there’s a group of people generally labeled Tax Protesters who do just that. They don’t believe they should pay income tax and don’t. But why do they believe they don’t have to pay taxes? More importantly to you, if you join up will you get to stop paying taxes?
A frame of reference… I can tell you that there hasn’t been a single court ruling supporting these groups. They have been denied again and again in federal courts. So why are they so insistent that they shouldn’t pay their income taxes like the rest of us?
Constitutional calamity… One of their major gripes is that the 16th Amendment to the Constitution is Unconstitutional. Just so you have a frame a reference the 16th Amendment which was ratified in 1913 states:
“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’m not a Constitutional lawyer, but that seems pretty cut and dry to me. Tax protestors also have tried to convince courts that wages are not income and therefore shouldn’t be taxed.
An example… Recently action movie star Wesley Snipes was taken in by one of these Tax Protesters and now owes the IRS over $12 million dollars.
When it comes to tax protesters the law is very cut and dry: you must pay your income taxes. There is nothing in the Constitution that makes you exempt no matter how you would like it to be interpreted.
Today's Question: What are your thoughts on "Joe the Plumber" and what do you think he will do to this election?
Now you have the smoking gun…Use it!