We are fast approaching the centennial of one of our amendments. The 16th amendment will reach this ripe old age in less than two years. The time has come for this centurion to be retired before more damage is done.
Mark Twain once quipped that everyone complains about the weather, yet no one does anything about it. This adage can be readily applied to the federal income tax as well. Nearly every politician has griped and complained about the income tax, yet it sits there getting larger and more convoluted by the day. The origin of the income tax included nearly forty pages of documentation, applied a very small levy to only those considered wealthy and returns were completed on a post card. This monstrosity has since grown to over seventy thousand pages and has essentially created its own economy. The complexity leaves the vast majority of income earners unsure how to accurately complete and file a return. In turn, this leads to accountants, attorneys, tax preparation software, and individuals providing goods and services that aid clients in avoiding taxation. This certainly appears to be a wasted vicious circle. Most of these individuals are well educated and professional. The retirement of the centurion would provide an outlet for their creative intelligence to seek new avenues to further achievement that could potentially assist mankind. One could easily construe that being forced to sign your name as to the accuracy of a return is the most basic form of entrapment. Individuals are forced to sign their name to a document they simply cannot fully comprehend. There is potential that every filed return includes an error of some type. We find that congressmen, political leaders and even our national financial guru have filed an incomplete, or incorrect, tax return. It is ironic that a tax preparer must pass a course prior to signing a return but a common individual has no such responsibility! The income tax wanders into gray areas regarding many of our basic rights and amendments. The income tax can easily be labeled as an illegal seizure of property. A worker receives wages that, in essence, then become real property of the wage earner. Before property is transferred, and in many cases following transfer, the government seizes the property. There was neither crime committed nor suspicion of a crime. The federal government simply confiscated your assets. The income tax also belies rules against illegal searches. By being forced to file a return, the government knows your income, occupation and employer. They know your marital status, number of dependants, and how many children live at home with you. You must disclose your mortgage carrier and interest paid. They know how much you give to charity and to which charity. And, the charity must qualify under federal guidelines! They know what you pay for health insurance and any out of pocket costs you have incurred. In essence, they know everything about you. This hinges on an illegal search and quite frankly, is none of their damn business! The income tax makes slaves out of every wage earner. We do not have a choice to pay taxes despite the rhetoric thrown out by Joe Biden. The majority equate slavery to human bondage. Yet, slavery to an entity powerful enough to simply confiscate your earnings and your assets is basically the same. There is nothing to stop the Feds from installing a higher tax burden. In fact, if one reads the political news, many in the federal government want to raise taxes in the most desperate way. These individuals have wasted money for years and now want hard working wage earners to pony up more bucks so they can continue wasting money. This is simply nothing more than financial bondage! If corporations and business entities paid no income tax, imagine the consequence? No need for the billions spent on consultants, payroll services and tax accountants. Costs would decrease and prices may become lower. Imagine the effects of removing half the lobbyists? Political contributions would substantially decrease; payoffs for votes and granted political favors would sustain a significant cut. A national sales tax would dramatically expand the tax base. The percentage of individuals who pay income taxes bears little resemblance to the number of individuals who purchase goods. If the database is expanded to three hundred million and a flat ten percent sales tax is applied, the revenue would be far greater than currently collected. Even if we exclude the primary home from the calculation, ten percent sales tax on all purchases would yield substantial revenue, pay off the debt and provide the federal government with all that is needed. Sometimes, the best method to review a proposal is to closely examine the groups and individuals who would protest the loudest. Who would these protestors be? Employees of the IRS, and tax courts, would vehemently oppose replacing the income tax with a sales tax. Simply stated, most would be out of a job. Tax attorneys would argue against the merits for the same reasoning. Additionally, these individuals are paid enormous sums to write the code. The lobby industry would go a little berserk. They make hefty sums encouraging tax breaks for clients and discouraging breaks for others. Politicians would lose the best method of payback, voter encouragement and potential donors. Election results would depend on the issues as opposed to special interest and the contributions. The very wealthy would gripe. They would finally have to actually pay tax to the federal government. Illegal immigrants would be taken aback. Many of these individuals never file a return and have a small chance of being caught not doing so. The paper companies and associations would fall into shock. Imagine just how much paper is used to keep the federal income tax in existence? These are just a small sample of the gripes and economic forecasts should the income tax go away. The lack of mortgage deduction will cause home sales to decrease. Charities will no longer receive goods, services and money. Unemployment will substantially increase and a new recession will come about. These are stories told by individuals who have skin in the game and would be directly affected. The average income producer would be far better served by a national sales tax. Most folks purchase a home for the pride and equity accumulation. There were plenty of home sales long before any income tax. Folks give to charity because they sincerely want to help. And, with more money available, it is likely that more would be given to charity. As far as unemployment, well there would be a temporary rise. But, please consider this? Will anyone really miss the IRS? Any individual in business follows a simple creed. Obtain the client with best sales potential utilizing the lowest procurement cost. The income tax code employs the exact opposite premise. The least amount of income is collected using the highest cost of procurement. This is an absolutely absurd scenario. Because of the above mentioned lobbying, self-serving interests, political donations and favor granting, retiring the centurion will be extremely difficult. No one wants to give up hard earned benefits. Yet, this is easily the best scenario for the American citizen. In essence, we need to push this, and push this with great effort. As in, vote for this or you will be out of office. It is quite simple. The centurion needs to be retired, and politicians will not allow this without much assistance. The middle class needs to re take our country. Lets retire the centurion before the centurion forces our country into retirement. -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. 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