The Tyranny of the State: Taxes

I've covered the topic of taxes elsewhere [1] but I wanted to expand on it some more with this first part in a series of posts that exposes some of the many wrong doings by the government.

I don't doubt that many will strongly disagree with the wish for the abolition of government but as I'm going to show you with these upcoming posts, the government is not a necessary evil and does not have to be tolerated. What the hell is a "necessary" evil anyway? That's an excellent example of Orwellian Newspeak right there.

Many will proclaim that the government couldn't exist without taxes because that is one of its largest sources of income. According to the MSN Encarta [2] approximately 90% of the revenue that the government gains is from taxes. This is why I believe the state has become the money grubbing creature it has. It must steal money from people in order to survive.

Some might not realize it but early in america's history when it was still made of up colonies, tax laws were not enforced, and many did not even bother to pay even the local taxes that were required. In the mid 1700's with the Stamp Act and and the Revenue Act (also called the "Sugar" Act) people rebelled against the British government for attempting to force them to pay taxes that they felt they were unfair. [3]

Fast forward a few hundred years and over time the government has increased the amount of taxes to be paid, as well as becoming more forceful in its enforcement. The odd thing is, at least to me, is that in about 1895 the supreme court declared a progressive income tax unconstitutional, after congress had passed it a year earlier. Then in 1913 the 16th amendment was ratified authorizing individual income taxation. Something that was deemed wrong in the past is all of a sudden supported by congress who had repealed that same idea earlier. Absolutely absurd!

Over time, the taxes required have tripled. In 1930 tax laws required 11% of an individual's income, 23% in 1950, and in 1995, 40%. Aside from the rising amount of taxes that one is forced to give up, the lengths that the government will go to force people to pay is unbelievable. [4]

From Every Man and Woman an Island, page 317, by Robert Clapp, I'd like to retell this horrible story:

"On November 28, 1984, IRS [terrorists] (not agents! I leave the double-speak to you guys) raided the Engleworld Learning Center in the suburbs of Alien Park, MI, because of overdue taxes. The IRS [terrorist] then set up a creative scheme to force parents to pay the center's taxes when they came to pick up their children.

Inside the center were bewildered and frightened parents not allowed to see their children until they paid money for taxes they did not (emphasis mine) owe to two IRS [terrorists] sitting near the entrance. The children were prevented from running to greet their parents, as was their custom. The IRS [terrorists] kept them guarded in Room C. [a special room for 'tax-chiselers' I suppose].

One IRS [terrorist] was posted in another room where pre-schoolers, some still in diapers [They were the ones most likely to make a 'mockery of the system'] were detained unattended with many still crying. The IRS [terrorists] continued to insist that until the parents paid the school, by signing a form to pay the IRS, the parent could not have their children.

From James Bovard's excellent book called Lost Rights, on page 269 he includes this horrible story. He quotes Sue Stoia, a parent of one of the children that were held hostage, "It was like something out of a police state. They indicated you could not take your child out of the building until you has settled your debt [And it wasn't even their debt to begin with! - Ken] with the school, and you did that by signing a form to pay the IRS. What we were facing was a hostage-type situation. They were using the children as collateral."

The Engleworld director Marilyn Derby said of the event, "Parents were not allowed to see their children until they had signed an agreement with the IRS. It was a very scary situation, like the Gestapo was here. Children were crying, parents were trembling. I told one woman whose hands were shaking that she shouldn't sign anything she didn't want to. She signed anyway."

The IRS is guilty of abusing and harassing individuals as well. Senator John Heinz complained in 1987 about an IRS agent who showed up at a person's home on a Saturday morning in Philadelphia without warning and announced, "You owe the government money, and if you don't pay, something very unpleasant is going to happen to you." [5]

The IRS, as I've written about in other posts, insists that people pay their taxes voluntarily but these quotes tell a different story. [6]

The IRS's Annual Report said, "Voluntary compliance with the tax laws in the United States self-assessment system of taxation relies heavily on the deterrent effect of successful criminal prosecutions."

Rep. Charles Rangel, a senior member of the House Way and Means Committee, said, "It is clear to me...that what makes a voluntary system work is the fear of sanctions and penalties."

Senator Harry Reid stated, in 1990, "The IRS uses scare tactics to keep American tax payers honest."

"The IRS, in it's 1992 annual report, even characterized its program of compelling businesses to convert independent contractors into employees subject to tax withholding as a 'way to improve voluntary compliance.'"

For anyone who doesn't have their heads up their rear ends I hope you can clearly see the government's double-speak. They continuously talk about "voluntary compliance," but what's "voluntary" about something that is enforced through threats of punishment, and "scare tactics"?

Aside from the government's contradictory statements, the IRS doesn't want to bother with making tax laws clear. The reason is because the more errors in a return they can find, the more fines they can inflict on people. This becomes very clear when you realize that "[t]he original income tax was a two-page form printed on the front page of the New York Times. Today, there are hundreds of forms and pages of instructions, tens of thousands of lawyers and accountants paid to figure out the volumes of...tax laws." [7]

Also, "[s]ince 1954, the number of different penalties that the IRS can impose on taxpayers has increased tenfold - from 13 to over 150. In 1992 the IRS imposed over thirty-three million penalties on taxpayers. The amount of penalties the IRS assesses has soared from a total of 1.3 billion in 1978 to 12.5 billion in 1992. The over one hundred penalties created in recent decades amounts to decks of trump cards the government can play against the citizen. Sen. David Pryor complained that the IRS used penalties 'as a weapon, as a whip over the innocent and the guilty taxpayer's head, as a point of leverage.'" [8]

From Lost Rights, page 265:

"Tax codes have become minefields for the average citizen. Thomas Field, director of Tax Analysts and Advocates, wrote in 1974, 'From the perspective of the IRS, the more ambiguous the law, the more powerful the enforcing agency.' An instructor at an IRS training school declared that agents could find errors in 99.9 percent of all tax returns. Money magazine noted, 'Although the Internal Revenue Manual runs to 260 densely printed volumes, tax collectors enjoy tremendous latitude, partly because courts have ruled over the years that the manual is not the law. As a result, the IRS can flaunt its own rules with impunity.' David Burnham, author of A Law Unto Itself: The IRS and the Abuse of Power, notes, 'The reality that so many are somehow in violation of a supremely murky law gives the agency and the individual agent an astonishingly free hand to pick and choose their targets.'"

Not only does the IRS cheat in order to enable themselves to fine people at high rates, but they are also extremely dishonest and unethical.

"In 1979 Alex and Kay Council invested a $300,000 bonus he received in a tax shelter that their accountant advised them was legitimate. After the three-year statute of limitations for their tax liability expired, the IRS sent them a statement in October 1983 demanding $183,021 in taxes, penalties, and interest for their 1979 return. The Council's accountant quickly wrote back to the IRS requesting a copy of the official assessment and an explanation of the alleged tax deficiency and also informed the IRS that the statute of limitations had already expired for 1979. The IRS did not furnish an explanation of the deficiency notice until February 1985, when they claimed they had mailed a certified letter stating the tax deficiency to the Councils in early 1983 before the statute of limitations expired. But the agency refused to provide the Councils with a copy of the certified mailing list it used until 1987. The mailing list showed that the IRS sent the notice of tax deficiency to the wrong address, yet IRS lawyers insisted in federal court that the Councils had to prove that they had not received the letter. In 1987 the IRS imposed a $284,718 lien on the Council's property for the alleged 1979 tax liability. Alex Council had borrowed money to finance his construction business, but the IRS lien destroyed his credit rating. After Council's construction business collapsed, he committed suicide and left a note to his wife: 'My dearest Kay, I have taken my life in order to provide capital for you. The IRS and its liens which have been taken against our property illegally by a runaway agency of our government, have dried up all sources of credit for us. So I have made the only decision I can. It's purely a business decision. I hope you can understand that.' (Alex Council had an an insurance policy that paid benefits to survivors even in the event of suicide.) When the case finally went to trial, the judge threw the IRS's case out of court, ordering the agency to revoke its deficiency assessment and remove the liens on Kay Council's property. Judge Frank Bullock noted that 'despite the Council's notifying the IRS as early as 1983 that they had received no notice of deficiency and their continued request for information from the IRS, the IRS never consulted the one piece of information which might well have settled this dispute and avoid litigation, i.e., the Postal Service records regarding the delivery of the Councils' notice of deficiency.'

Despite the judge's order, the IRS dallied several more months before removing the lien. Kay Council came to Washington to testify before the Senate Finance Committee on how IRS abuses helped to ruin her life. IRS officials responded to her testimony to the media, alleging that Alex and Kay Council had other tax violations that they had not admitted in public. David Keating, vice president of the National Taxpayers Union, observed, 'The IRS's officials' conduct was reprehensible. There is every reasons to believe they complied with the tax law. Worse, it is a violation of federal law for an IRS official to publicly discuss information from confidential personal tax returns." [9]

There are several other "deficiency" cases that I could cite, but ultimately, there is a large problem because of the fact that the IRS doesn't even bother to find a taxpayer's current address. "The Justice Department whined that requiring the IRS to actually notify citizens of tax assessments before final seizure notices would impose 'unmanageable detective burdens' on the IRS." The Justice Department characterized allowing the IRS to issue final notices threatening seizure of property within ten days as a 'practical balancing of interests' between the taxpayer and the IRS and noted that the taxpayer 'may still contest his liability by paying the tax and bringing a refund suit in federal district court or the Claims court.'" This is an insane demand because the average cost to get "representation and taxpayer involvement" to go to court to defend yourself from these vultures is $37,265, and the average cost for the citizen in a federal court criminal case is $74,530. [10]

Almost 200,000 a year become victims by threats from the IRS to seize their property within ten days unless they almost immediately meet the demands of the IRS.

Despite all of this nonsense with being forced to pay taxes, even if it's for services for citizens, it's a fact that taxpayers are not entitled to one benefit from the government even though all taxes are paid. Even the U.S. Treasury Department defines a tax as, "a compulsory payment for which no specific benefit is received in return. [11]

I think these facts which I've laid out are proof positive of the uselessness of these forced payments, called taxes, and the reasons why people shouldn't trust the government. I hope this causes people to wake up to the fact that the government only exists to feed itself, and grow larger and more powerful, at the expense of the innocent people who are at its mercy.

References:

1. http://arizonaatheist.blogspot.com/2008/02/taxes-stealing.html; accessed 6-14-09
2. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761573037/Taxation.html; accessed 6-14-09
3. A History of the Modern World, by R.R. Palmer and Joel Colton, Alfred A. Knopf, 1956; 324
4. Every Man and Woman an Island: The Individual Human Being As PRIME in the Universe, by Robert Clapp, Trafford Publising, 2004; 315
5. Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, by James Bovard, Palgrave; 265
6. Ibid.; 265
7. Every Man and Woman an Island: The Individual Human Being As PRIME in the Universe, by Robert Clapp, Trafford Publising, 2004; 315-316
8. Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, by James Bovard, Palgrave; 266
9. Ibid.; 271-272
10. Ibid.; 272-273
11. Ibid.; 259