It is unconstitutional for the government to tax your wages (income tax)?

Question

The government ratified amendment 16 in 1913 for the sole purpose of taxing corporations on the privilege of doing business in corporate form. -- http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment16/01.html#2

Furthermore, from the annotations of the amendment, "[T]he Sixteenth Amendment conferred no new power of taxation but simply prohibited the previous complete and plenary power of income taxation possessed by Congress from the beginning from being taken out of the category of indirect taxation to which it inherently belonged.' 13 "

If you have any doubt, I challenge you to find IN WRITING a statute that gives the federal government the right to tax a person's labor and/or earned wages.

Here is a documentary that will shock you.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zsZO6G7dfpI

Nowhere in the constitution does it state the government can impose an income tax. That is why congress ratified the 16th amendment. BUT the 16th amendment does not allow the government to tax a person's wages.

Response to Lee's answer: The IRS must comply with the constitution and its amendments
Source: Article VI of the constitution.

The IRS DOES NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO CREATE LAWS

Sincity... The government pays for roads with Gasoline Tax. All the nice things that we have are paid for other imposed taxes such as property tax, school tax, automobile registration tax...etc

Answer 1

Article I, section 8 states: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

This means they can lay taxes but they have to be evenly distributed. So versions of an income tax before the 16th admendment were ruled unconstutional because in effect, some states would be paying more tax than others because they have greater population. It was ruled that Congress could not lay a tax that was not uniform among all the states.

So congress passes the 16th admendment. Which 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.

So now they can lay a tax on income that does not need to be evenly apportioned among the states. It's clear as can be. They have the power to lay a tax on ANY and ALL INCOME, NO MATTER the source. I seen no mention of corporations or exclusion of workers. The only income that is not taxable is what congress says is not taxable.

So I don't see how you are misreading the 16th admendment. It says EXACTLY that congress may lay a tax on income. They could not be more clear. Are wages a source of income? Yes!

Furthermore, the "annotation" you cite simply means that income tax can not be considered a direct tax. It is inherently a indirect tax, and thus would be unconstutional absent the 16th admendment .

And you are right, the IRS can not make laws. Congress makes laws. They also have given the specific charge to the Teasury Dept. to issue regulations that have the force of law. Basically what the Treasury Dept. says, Congress says. When even the Treasury Dept. regulations are unclear, the IRS makes ruleings to clarify matters. If you disagree with one of these ruleings you are free to dispute the tax and take the IRS to court. They even let you choose the court, either Tax Court, U.S. Court of Federal Claims or U.S. District Court. If the court agrees with you, the IRS loses and can not collect, baring an appeal(or if you had to pay before going to court [not required if you choose Tax Court] they must pay you back). People do this all the time and some win and some lose. But the IRS does not make any laws.

The YouTube video's prove nothing. I can make a YouTube video and claim the state of Vermont does not exist and it's is all a conspiracy by the mapmaker cartel! That won't make any of it true.

Much of the arguement regarding the legality of the ratification of the 16th admendment revolves around things such as the various states not ratifying the 16th admendment exactly as worded by Congress (such as punctuation being different, a semi-colon in place of a comma) thus making what they ratified not the Admendment proposed by Congress. The courts have time and time again rejected these arguements. The video quotes a Judge Fox to have said (the video does not quote his full statement, but takes it out of context.) he THINKS if you research the history it may show that the 16th admendment was not properly ratified, but he also goes on to say that it's is in the Constution and that no court would set it aside. It's unclear what prompted him to make the statement, perhaps he also believes anti-tax propaganda as well, but the U.S. Supreme court has rejected the arguement already that the 16th admendment is invalid, and until they change this, which is unlikely, this arguement does not hold any water.

Answer 2

You'd better re-read the 16th Amendment, friend.

"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."

Please, tell me where, in that short paragraph, it says that the US government cannot tax your personal income. "From whatever source derived" most certainly does include your paycheck.

The major change in the 16th Amendment wasn't so much that it allowed income taxes, but that it allowed them "without apportionment among the several States". Prior to the 16th Amendment, tax levies had to be apportioned based upon the population of the several states. If that were the case, income taxes would be FAR higher for residents of CA than AK since CA has far more residents than AK.

When you add Title 26 of the US Code and many law libraries full of case law to the mix, there is no question left that income taxes on wages are perfectly legal. You can make any statement to the contrary that you wish, just as long as you pay your taxes when they are due. Freedom of Speech still does apply for the most part.

Your link to FindLaw doesn't say anything contrary to an income tax. And the YouTube link -- well, consider the source...

Answer 3

Check out U.S. Code, Title 26, Subtitle A, Chapter 1, Subchapter A, Part 1, Section 1. Check the link below if you want to see.

Oh, and there are some things on YouTube that are not true. It's not like television where everything you see is real.

Reply Added:
The IRS did not write any part of the U.S. Code. Congress did that. And every time we have a change in the tax code? Again, Congress.

You are correct in that the IRS can not write the law, but they have not done that.

Answer 4

The government passed a law in 1942 as a emergency to fund the war on Japan and Germany, and that set a president for taxing the people. Furthermore, if government didn't collect taxes then how would the country be able to operate? Somehow roads have to be maintained, Congress has to be paid, all services have to be maintained somehow. So, how would you run this country if taxes weren't paid?

Answer 5

16th as written: "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."

Seems pretty straightforward. That's why they are called amendments, they change parts of the constitution. You can't say the Constituion prohibits income taxes. The amendment overrules original text.

Answer 6

You do like having government funded programs and little things like roads and freeways, if you answered yes then you should have no issues with taxes. As far as it being in the Constitution, i wouldn't know. But taxes are used to pay for water pipe and roads, and trees and flower as well as parks and disaster relief funds like fema and the red cross.

Answer 7

THINGS I DIDN'T KNOW UNTIL I READ THEM ON THE INTERNET:

Nobody ever really landed on the moon - it was a giant hoax. What you saw on TV was filmed in Utah.

Elvis is still alive.

It is unconstitutional for the government to tax your wages (income tax).

Excuse me now....I just won 2 million pounds in the online UK lottery when my email was randomly selected, and I have to go answer the email.....

;-}

Answer 8

A person can't complain about his income taxes, that's unconst. but you can go through another path to challenge them.

Answer 9

We all know it $uks but there ain't nothing you, me, or anybody else can do about it so move on and get over it! I suppose you think you are free to keep your money in a free country, but govt is free to take it from you or free to take you to jail for not paying them off.