Are Taxes Voluntary?

Jay — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:36:51 +0000

DOJ & Taxes:

Some of my weekend reading had to do with our tax system. First, did you know that it is totally voluntary? According to the Tax Division of the USDOJ web site it is! Straight from their web site:

The Tax Division’s mission is to enforce the nation’s tax laws fully, fairly, and consistently, through both criminal and civil litigation, in order to promote voluntary compliance with the tax laws, maintain public confidence in the integrity of the tax system, and promote the sound development of the law. (1)

This statement could be read several different ways. Such as if you do not voluntary pay your taxes they will use force to take them from you. It is of my opinion the DOJ should remove “voluntary” from their web site.

Senator Harry Reid:

It seems as though Senator Harry Reid says Taxation is “voluntary.” He must be reading the DOJ’s web site and interpreting it a bit differently than I have. (3)

So far there’s a fairly good track record going on as to our “voluntary” tax system with a Senator and depending on your reading of the DOJ’s web site both on board, right? However, I think what the senator was saying is that there are many tax breaks that the government gives to people and business to stimulate certain areas of our economy. Side note: there goes the argument that lower taxes do not stimulate an economy. At any rate, because these are tax breaks it is totally voluntary for these people and businesses to pay taxes on those taxes the government doesn’t collect. He doesn’t quite go so far as to say that the taxes the government does collect are voluntary. I don’t think he would ever say that because he’s a moron.

Government vs. Bill Benson:

Then there is this nice story on News With Views. In the case of the Government vs. Bill Benson the government is going after him for stating that the Sixteenth Amendment was not ratified and as a result people are not required to file for income tax returns (2).

“In this historic 16th Amendment litigation, the Government has sued Bill Benson seeking an injunction prohibiting him from falsely telling people the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was not ratified and therefore people are not required to file an income tax return. The Government contends it is entitled to an injunction because Benson is promoting an abusive tax shelter, conduct made subject to a penalty per 26 U.S.C. Section 6700.” (2)

On January 10, 2008, the Federal District Court in Chicago issued a permanent injunction against me on the grounds that I was falsely telling people the 16th Amendment was not ratified. The Court refused to look at the evidence of the non-ratification of the 16th Amendment, deciding that the facts necessary to prove my statement was true were “irrelevant,” What has America come to when the government can accuse you of lying and prohibit you from presenting a defense in a so called court of law? My attorney, Jeffrey A. Dickstein, will be filing an appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. I urge you to review the pleadings filed in this case so you can see for yourself the tyranny being practiced in our courts. (7)

A little refresher about the Sixteenth Amendment and what it actually is we need to visit Wikipedia.

The Sixteenth Amendment (Amendment XVI) to the United States Constitution allows the Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on Census results. (4)

Also, a little history on income tax in America and Bill Benson is probably warranted for those of you that are interested you can read 16th Amendment – The Sixteenth Amendment Bill Benson Litigation. It shouldn’t take too long to read and is a good background of the history and the case.

Mr. Benson’s case is more of a first amendment issue as he is going around trying to educate people on the history of the Sixteenth Amendment. However, in our “voluntary” tax system the government doesn’t like this and is, in my opinion, trying to silence him.

You should read Section 6700 and then the details of the case at jeffdickstein.com and decide for yourself what exactly is going on and how wonderful our “voluntary” tax system really is.

UBS & the IRS:

Last, but not least, there is a very nice article in the WSJ today on the front page of Money & Investing below the fold entitled, IRS Extends Deadline to Declare Foreign Accounts. Our tax system is so nicely voluntary that the government has a “special voluntary disclosure program” (5) for those who are evading taxes at the Swiss bank UBS. If the US citizen’s account holders do not “voluntarily” turn them self in the US government will get the information from the Swiss run bank regardless of the fact that this would violate Swiss law (6).

Conclusion:

Although there are aspects of the US income tax that are voluntary, such as the “special voluntary disclosure program” that was set up for the US customers of the Swiss bank UBS and you can voluntarily pay taxes that the government does not collect. It seems that other aspects of our income tax system are not so voluntary despite what DOJ, Senator Harry Reid, Mr. Benson’s pending case, and the great voluntary program to turn yourself into the government tells us otherwise.

Someone does not know what they are talking about. I’m going to leave it up to you to decide, but I bet you can guess who I think is in the wrong here.

Sources:

External Links:

You Should Listen! » Taxes

Are Taxes Voluntary?