By Mac Slavo
Never mind the fact that the IRS itself has been unconstitutionally taxing most Americans for the past century.
If you are found to be delinquent in paying your taxes,the IRS can now revoke your passport, and prevent you from traveling until you’ve been cleared by the tax behemoth.
As USA Today reports:
A new enforcement provision passed by Congress and signed into law earlier this month allows the government to revoke the passports of seriously delinquent tax scofflaws — people who owe more than $50,000 to Uncle Sam.
“You could be on your honeymoon and they could revoke your passport,” said Tom Wheelwright, a certified public accountant and chief executive officer at ProVision Wealth Strategists in Tempe, Ariz.
Some details still need to be worked out, but the new passport rule indicates the government wants to get serious about collecting unpaid tax debts. The IRS reported 12.4 million delinquent accounts owing nearly $131 billion in assessed taxes, interest and penalties in 2014.
In addition to going after delinquent taxpayers by revoking their passports, the FAST Act highway-transportation bill signed by President Obama on Dec. 4 also gives private debt collectors a shot at forcing taxpayers to make good on their debts. The act includes a mandate that the Internal Revenue Service turn over certain unpaid tax delinquencies to private debt collectors.
The passport-revoking provision allows the Department of the Treasury and the IRS to authorize the State Department to take away U.S. passports from individuals with seriously delinquent tax liabilities. That’s defined as those greater than $50,000 and for which the IRS has filed a lien or levy, according to Matthew D. Lee of law firm Blank Rome. In a blog, he described the passport-revoking provision as a “powerful tool to force tax compliance.” Affected taxpayers would receive written notice.
Obviously, the emphasis is on revenue generation and the recovery tax money owed.
The rules have not all been worked out, but it appears that Americans who are already out of the country when their passports are revoked would likely be allowed to come back home.
But the larger issue is the overlapping of policies that are not always fair, which become even less fair when intertwined to enforce government policy – creating a serious risk of violating rights.
The threshold is $50,000, which initially seems like it would apply only to big fish; but when you factor in all the penalties and stacked fines that can be rapidly levied by the IRS, it really could happen to almost anyone. That might especially be true for expats, who often get caught up in tax liens when the IRS merely intends to investigate whether persons overseas have been paying their dues.
But the sudden loss of income, employment or mistakes in calculating tax liabilities could all factor into being unable to pay, and yet these individuals would likely lose their right to freely travel. USA Today notes:
Wheelwright views the $50,000 limit as low, adding that it wouldn’t take much to accumulate that much debt if a person lost a job or incurred big medical bills. It doesn’t help that it’s getting more difficult for people to contact the IRS, which is answering only about 40% of telephone calls from taxpayers, he said. Even tax professionals are looking at average phone waits of about 90 minutes, he said.
Many of the people with severely delinquent accounts are U.S. citizens who live in other nations, said Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst at researcher Wolters Kluwer in suburban Chicago. Some have dual citizenship and might not worry about losing their U.S. passports. “They feel they can ignore a tax problem for a while.”
While the IRS is unlikely to abuse this new power in the short term, and most of the cases may involve individuals who are legitimately delinquent, there is little that would keep the IRS from doing so in the future.
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Will members of the IRS, Treasury or State Dept. be caught piling on fraudulent tax liens or sums in order to penalize their political enemies, as well as dissidents (as Lois Lerner & co. did with Tea Party members) and shady individuals (whom, in theory, they might like to bust for tax evasion, but lack enough evidence to prove…)
The scenarios and possibilities for abuse are numerous, and there is every reason to think that this violates the spirit of the separation of powers, and represents a dangerous precedent for the IRS, who already stop at nothing to harass and eat out the substance of hardworking people in this nation.
You can read more from Mac Slavo at his site SHTFplan.com
Just another way for good ole OBOOOOMASSS – the magnificent FARCE – to taek a dig at you. /////
How much do you owe? How many owe more than 50K and have liens? This law effects very few ordinary people; it is aimed to prevent tax cheats from fleeing their obligations.
Do you think if a Republican is elected, he will seek to have this law repealed?
Headline: Trump repeals law preventing tax cheats from fleeing country.
I do have to agree on clickbait headlines. Rense is good at that, too, sensationalizing non-senational bullshit. Nonetheless, since the 16th amendment was not properly ratified, and since the Supreme Court stated that wages earned is not taxable income, this just gives the criminal IRS more power for enslavement.
It’s a clickbaity headline, but any good message one could have gleaned from your comment is lost due to your air of superiority and the presumption that everyone here is either a tax cheat or unemployed.
Maybe next time don’t insult the people you’re trying to convince? Oh, who am I kidding? You have a perpetual air of superiority that won’t go away just because it renders your entire message into “I am so smart, everyone else is so stupid” intellectual grandstanding.
Ever wonder how many people might find points of agreement with you if you didn’t devote so much of your time reminding everyone how much better you are than them?
I am not trying to convince anyone who thinks taxes are inherently theft. My claim that this argument rationalizes tax cheating is based on the fact that all the court cases in which it has been dismissed were brought by people who had tried to cheat on their taxes and used this argument to try to avoid paying them.
How is reporting the truth a sign of condesending to others?
If someone makes an argument that lacks validity and point that out, how is that arrogant?
I am a humble reporter of the facts. It is you who has trashed me with insults about my “superiority and presumtion……perpectual air of superiority……..everyone else is stupid….intellectual grandstanding….better than them.”
Your entire post is an extended accusation and insult. In no way do you address the issues. Therefore I must dismiss your serial insult as a distraction.
My pont is simple: the claim taxes are theft is used (as in all the court cases) to rationalize tax dodging AND that inherently taxes are not theft, tho our current tax structure perverts a fair system.
Nothing in that argument is arrogant or grandstanding? I ask people who tell me tax is theft if that justifies cheating on their taxes. They get pissed. I don’t really care. I am to reach people who have not made their minds up not those who have closed minds.
I’m sorry you felt the need to attack me. If you reread my post, you will find my real argument is to make the tax laws fair.
Tax cheats like to claim the income tax is unconstitutional to justify their theft of public funds.
They claim the 16th Amendment conferred no “new” tax powers. But, while ” the Supreme Court did hold that the 16th Amendment conferred no new power of taxation, the amendment relieved the pre-existing power to tax incomes from the constitutional requirement of apportionment. Therefore, the previous problem with the income tax was removed and the income tax is now constitutional.”
This view is accepted by constitutional scholars and the courts.
The law allowing the IRS to suspend passports for people who owe more than 50K and who have a lien is to prevent them from leaving the country to avoid paying what they owe. They are fleeing justice, and one way to stop them is to take away their passport.
People who break the law routinely lose rights.
The claim that income taxes are unconstitutional, which has no scholarly or judicial support, is used to rationalize tax fraud.
I do not like the tax schedule and loopholes and breaks for the wealthy–that should be corrected, but that is not a valid argument for dodging your tax payments. Those who do not pay are feeloaders and should be called what they are and deprived of their ability to flee or enjoy rights deprived to other criminals?
This law does not effect the ordinary person, who may fall behind far less than 50K or more. This is aimed at those dodging significant tax debt and against whom a lien has been processe
I await crucifixion by the tax cheats who do not like to be called out.
Cheating on taxes is the same as cheating the mob out of extortion money. I find neither to be morally reprehensible since neither is morally justified. Taxation is statist speak for theft.
I get it this is how you rationalize cheating on YOUR taxes. The 16th Amendment refutes your justification for fraud.
I would agree the corporate takeover of the government has created unfair tax laws but unfair is not the same as unconstitutional.
The state which I have denounced for criminal wars, subsidizing banks and weapons makers, etc etc
also paves the roads, maintains police and fire and a hundred other vital services for all of us, including developing on the internet which allows us to disagree.
I would work to create fair tax laws (where ordinary people do not pay higher rate than billionaires, where tax money does not subsidize rich corporations and fund criminal wars.
But that does not make taxes unconstitutional.
The real mob is the corporatocracy: the banks which gamble and when they win, pocket the profits, and when they lose, use your taxes to bail them out; the energy companies which make money by killing you with pollution (bribing politicians to vote against pollution reductions laws) and shift the cost in healthcare, disease, and death to you; the weapons makers who transfer trillions in public funds for weapons no on wants or which do not work.
That’s the mob: the government hijacked by the corporations to transfer public funds to private pockets.
We must fight against corporatoracy (ie fascism) and tax codes which are rigged to benefit the rich. But that is not the same as claiming taxes, which support our schools, or social services, as mandated by the Constitution (to promote the general welfare) are unconstitutional, an argument which rationalizes tax theft by individuals, while giant corporations simply buy their tax cuts.
We should work to change the system to one where taxes are used only to promote the general welfare and eliminate all those breaks which benefit special interests.
I get that by calling taxes illegal, you can rationalize not paying them. That is the logic of the thief, and in no way does it help promote change to a tax code based on fairness and the common good. It’s just an intellectual scam to mask tax cheating.
“I get it this is how you rationalize cheating on YOUR taxes. The 16th Amendment refutes your justification for fraud.”
I don’t cheat on my taxes out of fear of the armed thugs that confiscate my hard earned money. If I fail to pay, they take my property. If I resist they, lock me in a cage. If I resist with violence, as a rational person would do if faced with a bandit, I am hunted like an animal and killed. I frankly don’t care if your little scrap of paper justifies what is morally wrong. The law does not dictate morality.
“The state which I have denounced for criminal wars, subsidizing banks and weapons makers, etc etc
also paves the roads, maintains police and fire and a hundred other vital services for all of us, including developing on the internet which allows us to disagree.”
Bullsh*t those things are done by private entities with the state acting as a wasteful middle man. Private police and fire services have proven much more efficient and without the state granting favoritism throught its practice of pay-per-vote, are far more answerable to the people they serve. Asking who will build the roads without government is like asking who picks the cotton without slaves. You want your road fixed? Pass the hat in your neighborhood and get it fixed. Forcing others outside of your community to foot the bill for the upkeep on property you destroy is a morally bankrupt viewpoint.
“That’s the mob: the government hijacked by the corporations to transfer public funds to private pockets.”
Considering every single government has fallen to these corporate entities going back to antiquity, I do not accept that. The state is violence, those that hijack it do so because of the power it holds. Remove the state, remove the apparatus by which that corporatacracy is possible. Corporations turn to the state to do their bidding because they lack the ability to raise and fight with an army. They lack the ability to fund and fight a protracted war. Without the state to save them they would be held accountable, and they don’t want that.
“I get that by calling taxes illegal, you can rationalize not paying them. That is the logic of the thief, and in no way does it help promote change to a tax code based on fairness and the common good.”
I never called taxes illegal, I said they were morally unjustified. THEY ARE MORALLY WRONG. The logic of a thief is one that drives your tax code. That is money that YOU earned being taken under threat of force. That sure sounds like theft to me, and the resulting piece of paper you hold up as your shield is the rationalization of a thief made manifest. And in what way is the greater good served by systematic extortion backed by violence? Answer: it isn’t.
If I werfe cheating on my taxes, I would deny it….espcially after claiming taxes were like cheating on paying the mob for extortion. Then I would claim that I did not say taxes were illegal tho just comparing them to extortion and done in the context of an article based on the premise that income taxes are unconstitutional.
Even Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations explains why roads should be run by the government instead of privately. He explains roads are like monopolies (and most functions government assumes: military, police, bridges, etc) since duplicate road or bridges or fire departments are wasteful. So, he argued a private road would, for the sake of profits not be well-maintained since there is no competition or recourse, whereas the government has to answer to the users whose taxes fund it.
In the 19th Century, libertarian Spooner tried private postal service and failed.
Private fire departments will let your house burn down if you havent paid your bill; likewise private police.
How about two armies? How about two bridges over every river? Well, not only is that a waste of resources but it won’t work because monopoly practices operate as cartels, where 5 companies (such as the US private healthcare insurers) can meet and parcel out territories Mafia style or just set prices.
There is not evidence that Fed-ex, which is subcontracted by the Post Office, is more efficient but it is able to pay its workers less and pocket the profits. Also, as I found as a shipping supervisor, the USPS has a better record of protecting your packages from damage than the privates.
Here is an example of private efficiency which totally refutes your claims:
Medicare has an overhead of 2% (as does Medicaid) to administer payments to private doctors or hospitals. For every $1 it takes in, 98 cents goes for medical treament. Private insurers (who admiinsiter payments as well) extracts 20% and of every dollar taken it, spends 80 cents on treatment. The rest goes to CPOs who have made up to 106 million in 2009 (top Medicare manges make 2% of average top healthcare insurance CEOs), private jets, corporate art collections, , nvestor profits, etc.
The cost of private administration? 600 billion a year, 25% more than the national deficit. ( 18% x 3 trillion). Does that 20 include healthcare research, healthcare improvements, etc. Not a penny. It’s all public money into private pockets……at a cost 90% higher than Medicare.
The myth that government is always more inefficient than private enterprise is belied by the facts. Government is often inefficient but usually for poltiical reasons: the F-35 is a failed airplane that will cost 1.5 trilion. It is being built by Lockheed and supported by politicians who get legalize bribes from Lockheed.
The criminal is not “government” OR the Lockheed workers building the planes but the fascist takeover of government by corporations.
The evil is not government but a government hijacked by private interests, corporations and their paid shills. The solution is not to get rid of government or to sell off itsiand assets to profit-driven corporations but to take back government from the corporations and make it democratic and responsible to the people.
A democratic government (we are an oligarchy controlled by wealth) is the solution of a corrupt corporatocracy (Mussolini’s term for fascism) which works to transfer public money to private pockets. Only a democratic government, responsive to the public, can be held accountable. We need to complete the American Revolution.
The 16th amendment was never properly ratified. You, Dale Ruff, are such a statist it’s unbelievable. I echo “the man,” below, when I say that I pay out of fear of being locked in a cage by thugs with guns. A big propaganda line is that our tax system is voluntary, but when happens when you decide NOT to volunteer hard earned wages? Cage time. Since the Supreme Court, on more than one occasion, stated that wages earned is not taxable income, all the courts putting people in jail for not paying taxes are actually breaking the law.
More lies to rationalize tax cheating.
“There were 48 states in the Union in 1913 — the year when the Sixteenth Amendment was finally ratified — which meant that the Amendment required ratification by the legislatures of 36 states to become effective. In February 1913, Secretary of State Philander C. Knoxissued a proclamation that 38 states had ratified the amendment. (According to Congressional analysis, a total of 42 states had ratified the amendment as of 1992.
“…..the “non-ratification” argument was presented in a court of law by James Walter Scott in the 1975 case of United States v. Scott, some sixty-two years after the ratification. Scott’s argument was to no avail; he was convicted of willful failure to file federal income tax returns for the years 1969 through 1972, and the conviction was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit” Wiki
All this goes back to charges made by a man named Benson in The Law That Never was…..
another tax cheater tried to make the case but lost: Wojtas was convicted, sentenced to prison, and released in August 1986.
“Benson’s claim was also rejected in Miller v. United States.[7] The court stated, “We find it hard to understand why the long and unbroken line of cases upholding the constitutionality of the Sixteenth Amendment generally, Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Company … and those specifically rejecting the argument advanced in The Law That Never Was, have not persuaded Miller and his compatriots to seek a more effective forum for airing their attack on the federal income tax structure.” The court then sanctioned the litigants for advancing a “patently frivolous” position.
Similar “Sixteenth Amendment arguments” have been uniformly rejected by the courts in other cases including United States v. Thomas.[8] InThomas the court, in affirming the tax convictions of Kenneth L. Thomas, referred to Benson’s book and noted that the errors found by Benson had already been investigated by Secretary of State Knox at the time of ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment, and had been determined to be insignificant. (See Tax protester constitutional arguments.)
Arguments that the Sixteenth Amendment was not properly ratified were also rejected in Sisk v. Commissioner;[9] United States v. Sitka;[10] andUnited States v. Stahl.[11] The non-ratification argument has also been deemed legally frivolous in Brown v. Commissioner[12] and Lysiak v. Commissioner.”
So there is a long list of cases where the argument you are repeating which has been often used by tax cheaters to try to justify their actions, have been rejected, judged frivolous, and dismissed.
What happened to Benson who wrote The Law that Never Was:
“Upon retrial, Benson was again convicted of tax evasion and willful failure to file tax returns, and his conviction was upheld on appeal. The conduct for which he was convicted involved over $100,000 of income he did not report on Federal income tax returns. He was sentenced to four years in prison and five years of probation.[16]
Benson continued to promote his views. Until early 2008, Benson included verbiage on his web site – in quotation marks – that he attributed to the text of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, an early case interpreting the Amendment. He quoted the Court as saying that the Sixteenth Amendment “did not change the constitutional limitations which forbid any direct taxation of individuals.”[17] The text of the Court’s decision does not contain any such quotation.[18] No U.S. Federal court has ever ruled that any provision of the United States Constitution forbids any direct taxation of individuals. Benson apparently removed the material after a court order was issued regarding his materials.”
After release, Benson continued to urge others to refuse to pay their taxes, claiming they would not be prosecuted. “as the year 2007, Benson claimed, in marketing the “Reliance Defense Package” that included his non-ratification argument, that “[t]o date, the IRS has steadfastly refused to prosecute any person standing on this defense. Why do they do this? Because they know they cannot win!!”[20] The book was actually published several years before Benson’s arrest and, as noted above, Benson himself actually was convicted despite using the defense.”
The Wikpedia article from which I am quoting has 36 primary sources to judge its accuracy buy.
The claim the income tax is unconstitutional has a history of being used as a defense by tax cheats; it has always lost because the claim cannot be supported by evidence. Those who have tried to use Benson’s defense to avoid conviction of tax evasion.
No serious person claims our tax system is voluntary. You can continue to follow an argument that is itself based on fraudulent claims.
For the results (failure in all cases) that wages are not taxable, see’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_protester_constitutional_arguments#Definition_of_income
Some tax protesters cite the text of Doyle vs Mitchell Bros Co but the court said: “Stratton’s Independence v. Howbert, 231 U.S. 399, 415 , 34 S. Sup. Ct. 136: ‘Income may be defined as the gain derived from capital, from labor, or from both combined.’
You are repeating arguments made by those attempting to defend against tax fraud which have ALWAYS been refuted and lost.
I urge you to continue publicly asserting you are afraid not to pay your taxes; it would be a terrible mistake to be honest and risk being held accountable.
Just because the cases you sited have lost does not mean the income tax is legitimate for regular Americans. The ONLY thing the income tax is for is to pay down the national debt…we all see how well that’s doing. All the income tax can disappear once we make the Federal Reserve Bank (a private institution, not a government institution) disappear.
Anyway, you can continue to pay the fraudulent tax, just fine, most of us do whether we agree with it or not, but there is NOTHING legitimate about it, despite your pandering to TPTB.
Peace.
And yet the elitists like Geitner and Sharpton, and MANY others get a free walk away from paying what they owe and the accompanying fines… 🙁
The system is a corrupt morass run by traitors, imbecils and Quislings!
(
I totally agree. As I cldarly stated, the tax code is skewed to benefit the rich and needs to be fixed. That does not mean the concept of taxation is bad but that the concept has been perverted. Surely, you understand that a tax on gas to build and repair roads makes sense but allowing multi-millionaires to pay a lower tax rate than their accountants is wrong.
We need to take back our government and part of that is creating a fair, progressive tax code. We once had one from the end of WWII to the Reagan era, which was the Golden Age of American economic growth where all levels benefited with rising wages, etc. Reagan cut the top rates by 70% and ended up with huge deficits and tripled the debt, which was mitigated only by 11 hikes on middle class incomes.
Since Reagan destroyed the union movment, which had been the leverage for wage gains as productivity and profits rose for 30 years, the median wage has fallen by 40% while the incomes of the rich have risen nearly 300%.
We need a fair tax system which will require completing the American Revolution and making government accountable to the people, not the wealthy corporations.
Sharpton is the least of it. Apple and Exxon dodge tens of billions in taxes routinely.
Much of the attack on him was racist, part of the general attack on black leaders.
Here is what he reported: “the liens had been paid down, although he declined to say by how much, and that he was “current on all taxes” he was obligated to pay under settlement agreements with tax authorities.
“We’re talking about old taxes,” he said, adding: “We’re not talking about anything new. So all of this, as if I’m not paying taxes while I’m doing whatever I’m doing, it reads all right, but it just is not true.”
snopes investigated and concluded: “Ultimately, Al Sharpton confirmed he owes or has owed tax debts to federal and state authorities at some point, but the actual balance of those debts is information to which the news media are not directly privy as tax agencies at both the state and federal level are unable to confirm or deny the actual amounts in question, the rate at which the debt was repaid or is being repaid, and whether or not Sharpton currently owes money to either government tax agency.”
Giethner, of course is a central banker, part of the banking control of the government, but his actual non-payment was minor. He has paid up and apologized.
“Geithner, now the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has been under fire since it was revealed last week that he did not pay his taxes in full while at the IMF from 2001 to 2004. International organizations such as the IMF are exempted from Social Security taxes, so U.S. citizens who work there are supposed to pay them as if they are self-employed. Geithner did not.
Geithner, who as Treasury secretary would be in charge of the IRS, paid back taxes for 2003 and 2004 after an IRS audit in 2006. Geithner paid further back taxes and interest after similar problems for his 2001 and 2002 returns were discovered during vetting by the Obama team.In total, Geithner paid $34,023 in back taxes and $8,679 in interest.”
So Geitner owed 34K and paid it with interest and apologized. Sharpton has paid or is paying down his tax debt. But let’s look at Apple or
Exxon, the kinds of multinationals which use tax loopholes they buy by paying legalized bribes to politicians:
ibtimes reports: “America’s largest companies are harboring more than $2.1 trillion in profits overseas to avoid paying taxes stateside, a report showed. The accumulated profits, if repatriated from places that include Bermuda, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, would amount to an estimated $620 billion in U.S. tax revenue.
Apple has the most money stored in offshore accounts of the companies identified in a study. Around three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies take advantage of tax havens abroad
The names on the list are, of course, recognizable to many. At the top was Apple, which has $181.1 billion. Microsoft holds $108.3 billion offshore in five tax havens, and Pfizer has $74 billion in 151 tax havens. General Electric has around $119 billion overseas in 18 overseas tax havens..”
Exxon has in past years made 15 billion in profits and paid no taxes. General electric ha made billions and received tax refunds!
That is the real problem, not Geithner’s 34K or the money Sharpton is paying down.
Only when we replace our current fascist oligarchic rule with genuine democracy will we be able to have fair taxes, such as we once had in our period of sustained economic growth for all levels of society.
So while Sharpton (a man who lives with death threats and was stabbed by a Sharpton hater) may be unable under the IRS rules to travel abroad IF he still has liens, Cook of Apple and other CEOs who dodge hundreds of billions in taxes, are free to go wherever they want in their subsidized private jets.
We need perspective:
I’ve read this long winded reply. Let me as you something.
Are you a taxpayer? If so how do you know? If not why and how not?
More specifically cite with particularity the official govt documentation with your name on it verifying the nexus of said regulated revenue taxable activities.
Aaron Russo’s documentary America Freedom to Fascism showed us examples of a few well informed people who didn’t pay their income tax on principle and some who were paying their taxes and were mistakenly tagged as owing and the IRS came down HARD on these people, ruining their lives to make examples out of them. The IRS already has a lot of big sticks to go after “tax cheats”.
This isn’t about collecting taxes, it’s about restricting travel. Incrementalism, boiling frogs.
What’s next, McCain’s proposed checkpoints throughout the US as his “solution” (12 years ago) to illegal immigration? Except next time the excuse will probably be to contain the psy ops ISIS or Ebola.
Jefferson had it right on taxes as a form of enslavement. IRS agents are riveting chains around the necks of their fellow Americans and are now enforcers of Obamacare as well.
“And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers.”
― Thomas Jefferson
Most Americans think income taxes are constitutional but would like to see changes.
“Strong support for a flat tax extends across income groups (62 percent) among those making less than $30,000 a year and 73 percent among those making more than $110,000 a year.”
How sad! Nearly 100% making less than 30K, who now pay hardly any income taxes and more likely get an earned income tax credit (a payment) would pay far more. A person who supports a tax which would take money out of their pocket is known, in technical terms, as a useful idiot.
Those making over 110K a year would pay far less and so at least their support is rational.
Using the taxformcalculator.com form I found
If you have 2 kids and make 30K, your federal income tax will be $1400 if you do NOT itemize deductions. If you itemize and have a mortgage of $150K,, you will pay with deductions of $13000 (mortgage, property taxes, etc) zero.
So in the worst case such a family of 4 pays less than 5%. So an increase to 15% would cost you $2800 a year.
If you make 20K and have 2 child and do not itemize, you pay $800 or less than 5%. An increase to 15% would add over $3000 to your tax bill. So why would you support a flat tax?
This is ignoring the Earned Income Tax Credit…which would no doubt be repealed with a flat tax.
A family of 4 with an income of $25K (without itemized deductions) gets back $5248 from the EITC. Under a flat tax, with EICT repealed, they would pay $3,750 and lose $5248 for a net loss of $9,000 a year.
Not one person making under 30K a year would NOT lose money under a flat tax…tho 62% support it, which we can assume does not mean they want to lose money but are ignorant of its effects and have been brainwashed by the wealthy, who would save millions.
Why do people become useful idiots by supporting proposals and progams which are against their own self-interest? The answer is simple: they have been brainwashed by cynical propagandists.
What does this have to do with tax cheating (which the IRS ruling is designed to hinder by banning passports)? The flat tax is another way to dodge taxes on the rich by shifting them to the poor.
Anyone who doesn’t pay his taxes shifts the burden onto others….and thus is a freeloader.
We need to make our tax laws more fair, not eliminate them. We need to support efforts to curb tax cheats.
If they want to do something useful, they should garnish the wages of their own IRS employees who owe millions in back taxes.
Will this include our Congress, Senators and Reps. Of course not the corruption continues by the makers of the laws to soot themselves not the people.
Just imagine that you must have a passport to travel within the U.S. Imagine this applying to vehicles wishing to enter another state……It is not such a stretch with this corrupt government !
Well these Nazis let all the Geitners and Sharptons etc walk away scott free of any payments or fines for their UNPAID taxes BUT they rather persecute average citizens a after all we are the gubmints own personal cash cows. NO they let their elites and power players get a free ride on the taxpayers backs!
With fewer good paying jobs the government can look forward to collecting fewer large amounts of tax revenues to keep the glutenous monster of dependence fed for very long. Since 2008 we have been on a downward spiral economically with no end but bankruptcy for the nation as a whole. So I guess martial law and fema camps are in our future and soon from the looks of things. Perhaps this has been Obama’s goal all along?
At best, this is a denial of due process to the extreme by a very deceptive private corporate quasi-government. To whom does any of this nonsense actually apply? Congress can make all the law it wants, but their authority exists only within DC and it’s territorial boundaries.
To be specific about the term “resident” as it is applied in 26 USC and other “US” titles, said residents are liable for the taxes imposed. If your are a resident of DC or one of it’s territories, you are liable.
But, if you live within one of the fifty states of the union, how can you be a resident as defined in the above titles? The fact is, YOU CANNOT! The laws and cases regarding Residency are very plain and specific. You must be physically present within that jurisdiction in order to be a lawful RESIDENT.
The IRS, a non government contracted agency, is counting on the ignorance of the people to fleece them. The Government stays silent because the factions that benefit from the fleecing of the People, line the pockets of those Government officials and keep them in power for decades.
This legislation has zero nexus with the people of the 50 states of the union of these united states of America. To assure most of you that are not well read on the Law of Federal Legislative Jurisdiction, see Attorney, Lowell Becraft’s analysis, at: http://www.newswithviews.com/Becraft/larry.htm
Deep down inside, you know it’s wrong, but you just can’t put your finger on it. Most Americans are robbed and even jailed by Government because they are improperly (not ignorant) educated and intimidated, viet. armis. (By force of arms) You have all heard it a thousand times, “They’re gonna’ get you”. They only go after the uniformed.
The pivotal issue at hand is the real definition of “Resident”, which totally eludes the common (non-fiction) people of the several states. This is because of the deceptive nature of certain controlling factors, both within and without the current de-facto quasi-Government system.
This is mainly attributed to our institutions of learning, and other common culprits and thieves like the complicity of the legal system (attorney’s) the national media and other subversive cartels preying on the un-informed citizenry, these traitors are bent on the theft, control and complete take over of this country.
The most complicit of the bunch is/are the phony criminal territorial courts (US district courts operating outside of DC) that have absolutely no authority to adjudicate most of any causes of action outside of DC and it’s territories. They have zero nexus with any of the natural living non-fictional people of the states.
For a case that lays it out so even I can understand it, see: “Case No. CR-3-00-019”, Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States.
Why do you think that there are so many Congressmen, Senators and embedded officials that have been in office/power for over forty or even fifty years? They entered politics and government service with just average economic status and wealth, but are now multi-m(b)illionaires? Just look at Hillary. Quite a pay raise, don’t ‘ya think?
Ask any official that wants your money, your property and mostly, your compliance, a very simple set of questions: To whom does it apply, what is the source of their authority. Then demand from them that they certify the answer under Penalty of Perjury. Most of all, have fun making them sweat.
A short note on your Pass Port. If you declared that you are a US citizen and or US Resident, you may have a problem.
But, if you declared to be a American, or National and added an Affidavit stating that you do not reside within the US (DC) then you should not be subject to the draconian statute (not law) that has just been forced upon you.
Remember, if you have no physical presents in DC or one of it’s territories, your are not a RESIDENT subject to their rules.
Great commentary. And true.factually