Posted by
AmericanPatriot on Friday, March 28, 2008 12:23:01 PM
In his book Federal Mafia: How It Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes, Irwin Schiff asserts that Americans are not legally required to pay taxes. "In 1986, 99.5 million Americans were tricked into filing and paying federal income taxes when legally, they didn't have to do either," he wrote. Schiff and other opponents of the income tax argue that the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) has usurped authority that it does not legally possess and that the 16th Amendment was not properly ratified and is, therefore, invalid.
According to SupremeLaw.org, the I.R.S. is not part of the United States Department of the Treasury and is not a "lawful organization." An article entitled "31 Questions And Answers About The Internal Revenue Service" by Paul Andrew, states, "At footnote 23 in the case of Chrysler Corp. v. Brown... the U.S. Supreme Court admitted that no organic Act for the I.R.S. could be found, after they searched for such an Act all the way back to the Civil War... Since there was no organic Act creating it, I.R.S. is not a lawful organization."
In 1999, We The People, an organization founded to "protect, preserve and enhance the unalienable rights, liberties and freedoms of the people," launched its Legality-of-Income-Tax campaign. The project, headed by Chairman Bob Schulz, is designed to "get the federal government to respond to the petitions for a redress of grievances related to the allegedly fraudulent and illegal income tax system."
Schulz cites five primary points which affirm his organization's belief that income tax is unconstitutional.
1. In 1913, the 16th Amendment was "fraudulently and illegally declared to be ratified" by Secretary of State Philander Knox;
2. There is no law that requires most Americans to "file a tax return, pay the federal income tax or have the tax withheld from their earnings;"
3. People who file a Form 1040 "'voluntarily' waive their 5th Amendment right not to bear witness against themselves;"
4. The IRS "routinely violates citizens' 4th Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure," by failing to properly obtain warrants issued; and
5. The IRS "routinely and grossly violates citizens' due process rights" and "operates far outside the boundaries" of U.S. law.
Schulz wrote in a letter to the I.R.S. in June 2002, "I believe the federal income tax to be fraudulent in its origin and illegal in its operation... I believe the I.R.S. lacks the legal authority to force employers to withhold the income tax from the paychecks of its employees or to force most Americans, including me, to file a tax return and to pay the income tax."
In 2001, Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) proposed a constitutional amendment -- called the "Liberty Amendment" -- that would repeal the 16th Amendment. He argued that the United States successfully existed for almost one and a half centuries without income tax, and that rather than improve Americans' lives, the income tax has been a detriment. "The income tax has given government a claim on our lives," he stated. "It has enabled government to expand far beyond its proper limits, invade our privacy and penalize our every endeavor. The Founding Fathers never intended an income tax, and they certainly would be dismayed to know that Americans today give more than a third of their income to the federal government."
Some business owners agree with critics of the income tax. David Cay Johnston reported in his article "Owners Quit Paying" in The New York Times that some businesses have stopped withholding taxes from their employees' paychecks. Al Thompson, owner of a Florida aviation company, told his employees that, legally, "Income taxes must be paid by only a few Americans," and that he would no longer be withholding income tax, Social Security, or Medicare taxes from their paychecks, nor would he report to the I.R.S. how much his employees earned.
In a 2004 letter to the I.R.S., Schulz wrote, "[T]he federal government -- like a thief in the night -- has subtly, over many years, stripped the American people of our liberty, our property, and in many cases, our very lives in order to protect and perpetuate a fraudulent, debt-based money system -- and the life-blood of that system -- the horribly unjust and unconstitutional personal income tax."
He continued, "The unlawful and unjust income tax system produces nothing but sorrow, distress and calamity and division in our society. It has been imposed on an unsuspecting people through deceptive and fraudulent means -- outside of constitutional restraints."
The Federal Mafia
SURPRISE!
The Income Tax is Voluntary!
"Our system of taxation is based upon
voluntary assessment and payment, not upon distraint."
-The Supreme Court
Flora v. United States, 362 U.S. 145, pg. 176
In 1986, 99.5 million Americans were tricked into filing and paying federal income taxes when legally; they didn't have to do either. If this statement shocks you, it is only because you and the rest of the nation have been thoroughly deceived by the federal government (with federal courts playing the key role), and an army of accountants, lawyers, and other tax preparers. All of these have a vested interest in keeping you ignorant concerning the real nature of federal income taxes.
That an entire nation of supposedly intelligent human beings could be so thoroughly hood winked, must rank as the greatest and most spectacular hoax of all time, with the phenomenon of millions of Americans scurrying to IRS offices each April 15th comparable to lemmings marching into the sea.
The fact is no provision of the Internal Revenue Code requires anyone to file or pay income taxes. This tax, unlike other internal revenue taxes, is strictly (censored voluntary). This is because a compulsory income tax would violate the Constitution's three taxing clauses, the Bill of Rights and the 16th Amendment-all of which impose restrictions on the government's power and ability to tax income in ways few Americans understand. So, in order for the income tax not to be unconstitutional it had to be written on a noncompulsory basis. However, in order to deceive Americans of this, as well as provide federal courts and the IRS with deceptive passages on which to hang illegal prosecutions and illegal seizures, the Internal Revenue Code was written to make paying income taxes appear mandatory. The government succeeded in doing this by tricking the public into believing that those enforcement provisions of the Code, that apply to other, non-voluntary taxes (such as alcohol and tobacco taxes), also apply to income taxes when in fact, they do not. However, despite such trickery, the IRS still admits that our "income tax laws"' are purely VOLUNTARY!
Indeed, every official IRS pronouncement on this issue admits to the voluntary nature of the income tax, as the following quotations and government documents prove.
"The IRS' primary task is to collect taxes under a voluntary compliance system." (emphasis added)
- Jerome Kurtz
Internal Revenue Annual Report, 1980
"Our tax system is based on individual self-assessment and voluntary compliance." (emphasis added)
- Mortimer Caplin
Internal Revenue Audit Manual, 1975
"Each year American taxpayers voluntarily file their tax returns and make a special effort to pay the taxes they owe."
-Johnnie M. Walters
Internal Revenue 1040 Booklet, 1971
"Because the American tax system is based on voluntary compliance and self-assessment, each year taxpayers make their own determination of their tax liability' and file returns reporting the correct tax. (emphasis added)
- WELCOME to the United States of America
Form 1-357, Re. 7-19-80, the United States
Department of Justice, Immigration
and Naturalization Service