Are payroll taxes voluntary?

Question

I recently heard a rumor that payroll taxes are a voluntary tax. There are stories going around that you are not required to pay any taxes out of your payroll check and there's nothing the government can do about it. According to the story businesses and coporations are required to pay the tax but individuals are not. Anyone have any thoughts or facts on this. If this is correct I am going to stop paying payroll taxes.

Hey, I didn't say I believed it. I just wanted to investigate it further.

Answer 1

It's just a rumor, it's not true at all. If you are an employee, your employer is required by law to withhold 6.2% of your paycheck for social security taxes (up to the income limit of $97,500 for 2007) and 1.45% for medicare, which your employer has to match taxes. Your employer also takes out federal and state withholding taxes, depending on your income and filing status and number of exemptions claimed on W-4. The only ones you could avoid having taken out of your paycheck would be federal and state withholding. You could do so by claiming enough exemptions so that neither of those would be withheld from your paycheck. But by doing so you would almost guarantee that you would owe both federal and state taxes at year end, and if you exceed a certain amount of tax liability ($1,000 for federal, and since I don't know what state you live I can't tell you what your state threshhold is) you would be subject to underpayment penalties.

The rumor is just that, a rumor, and a totally incorrect one at that.

Answer 2

Absolutely not, ask to see a W-4, the form you fill out when you first start working for a company which is submitted to the IRS. You'll see who is exempt from paying payroll taxes, which is basically full time students making under a certain amount and people making under I think $7 or 8 thousand a year. Sorry but everyone else pays and has to.

Answer 3

We just went through an unpleasant expierence with illigal immigrants, fake documents and ICE at my company. This is how they operate: They use a fake Social Security number then claim 'married and four to five dependents on their W-4. Since the number of dependents reduces their witholding to just about zero - they then qualify for the 'Earned Income Credit,' which means that not only do they not pay income taxes, they get a check from the government anyway. The reason nobody caught this was because their documents were using the Social Security numbers of young children so there were no duplicate tax returns. .

Answer 4

I said it once an now I'll say it again.
If the income tax is illegal, then why did it become the 16th amendment to the Constitution of the United States?
Article. XVI.
[Proposed 1909; Questionably Ratified 1913]
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.
http://www.constitution.org/afterte_.htm

I always wondered where the tax protesters went to school. I learned this in 8th grade civics.

A couple of other things to remember; slavery used to be legal, women, blacks, and people 18-20 used to not be able to vote. The constitution was amended so that those things are now illegal too.

Answer 5

No, it is not correct. When people state this, you ask to see the law that says this is true. They can never come up with the law. They tell you a bunch of crap.

But, the bottom line is that the Courts have ruled on this issue, and payroll taxes are not voluntary.

Answer 6

Taxes are not voluntary. No taxes are voluntary, none at all. Anywhere. All taxes are demanded by whatever taxing authority imposes them. That is the nature of taxes. There are two words that describe any claim that taxes are voluntary and the first one is Bull.

Answer 7

THINGS I DIDN'T KNOW UNTIL I SAW 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, and performing marriage ceremonies in Las Vegas.

It is unconstitutional for the government to tax your wages (income tax), and most of what we think of as income isn't really income anyway.

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.....

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There are always a lot of stories going around, and you can hear a lot of rumors - you'd be wise not to believe everything you hear.

Answer 8

Complete and total fabrication. In other words, a lie. If you want the straight scoop, get a copy of IRS Pub 15, Circular E, from their website. It's quite clearly mandatory.

Answer 9

This fantasy circulates often ,
From the people short on money and long on day dreaming .

Alas , none of them are in contact with reality .
Fun to pretend , STUPID to try .
If you do stop , is there a brand of cigarette you want sent to your prison cell ?
Remember , Al Capone never did time for any of his crimes ,
EXCEPT TAX EVASION .

>

Answer 10

go ahead stop paying them, im curious how long it will take the IRS to come knocking on your door.

Voluntary tax that has to be one of the funniest things ive heard, how could you believe such a thing.