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Originally Posted by Sun Tzu
Goes to show you the corruption of the supreme court. The 16th Amendment
has nothing to do with capitation taxes. Even if "We the people" consented to have our salaries taxed why is the IRS/Fed involved? Shouldnt it be a congressional matter?
It is old, one of the oldest and biggest scams in American history.
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I didn't know the definition of the word 'capitation', so I looked it up:
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Originally Posted by The Internets
1. a tax levied on the basis of a fixed amount per person
2. A poll tax, head tax, or capitation tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census (as opposed to a percentage of income).
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For fun, here's the text of the 16th Amendment:
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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.
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Here we go.
'The Congress' - ie, the legislative branch, not the executive (president) or the judiciary (Supreme court and lower courts).
'shall have the power to lay and collect taxes' - OK! They can pass laws, subject to whatever restrictions are about to follow and any other constitutional restrictions, to lay and collect taxes. Good so far.
'on incomes' - aha! So an income tax, not a poll tax (or 'capitation' tax, if you prefer), or any other kind of tax. On income. Money I make.
'from whatever source derived' - Such as working and getting a salary. Or investing and getting dividends. Or inheriting money. Or by mowing someone's yard and getting paid for it. Or someone handing me money. Or finding money on the street. Or digging up buried treasure. Or selling something.
'without apportionment among the several States' - ok. So the tax go to the Feds, not the States.
'without regard to any census or enumeration.' - Again, making it clear that this isn't a poll tax, or based upon someone being counted by the government, or it some sort of government list or database. If I didn't have a birth certificate, or wasn't counted by the census, or wasn't notified by the government that I was supposed to pay taxes, I'm still responsible for paying them (if congress lays a tax on some income I make).
So, there in plain english is the law that allows congress to collect a federal income tax. One might try to quibble that 'the IRS' isn't the congress, but remember that the constitution also grants congress the right to raise an army...but noone expects to see congressmen going into battle (unfortunately). The IRS doesn't decide what the taxes will be, congress does. The IRS just oversees collection.
So, feel free to refute my interpretation, or admit your error. Unfortunately I've been on the Internet long enough to have high hopes for neither.
No one likes to pay taxes. However, we should recognize where they go. In the US, that means:
o The military.
o Medicare and Medicaid.
o Public education.
o Regulation (EPA, FDA, TLA, etc.)
o Law enforcement (FBI), intellegence (CIA), and homeland security.
o Various infrastructure projects in the states (roads, the interstate highway system, etc.
Let's pretend your fantasy is reality, and noone has to pay federal taxes. All of the above goes away. Effectively, we have no federal government, no 'U' in USA. 50 separate countries. How is that better than what we have now? Essentially we become like Europe, southeast Asia, South America, or Africa. Is that better than what we have now? Not really. Some of those countries are approximately equal to ours as far as standard of living goes. Most are worse. Some much worse. Citizens in all of them still have to pay taxes. Most of the countries with an approximately equal standard of living pay more taxes than we do. So what do you hope to achieve? Selfishly not pay taxes while the rest of us do? Achieve utopia, where you don't pay taxes, but recieve all the benefits?