FIGHT FEDERAL INCOME TAX BY CHANGE NOT REFUSING TO PAY

Fight Federal Income Taxes by Change, not Refusing to Pay

by Chris Moss CPA

Every year around tax time, I hear a few successful and intelligent taxpayers come explain to me that income tax is illegal.  When I ask them how this is possible, I am told that the 16th Amendment was never properly ratified.  It turns out these taxpayers had attended some seminar or read some book that promotes the 16th Amendment as a fraud on the American people.  So I thought it might be useful for us to look a little closer at the various arguments against paying income tax that are out there.   

The Benson case: William J Benson stopped paying income tax claiming the 16th Amendment was never properly ratified. He argued that state amendments were not of the exact language of the circulated congressional amendment, making the amendment fail to achieve the three-forths required majority of states. Benson even wrote a book in 1985 titled “The Law That Never Was: The fraud of the 16th Amendment and personal income tax.” History in fact shows that in 1913, Mr. Knox, Secretary of State, proclaimed that the amendment had been ratified by the necessary three-quarters of the states. Mr. Knox was clearly aware of the grammatical and minor changes in text between the various state and congressional amendments.

In United States v. House 617 F Supp 237 (1985) the Court said “The Solicitor of the Department of State drew up a list of the errors in the instruments and taking into account both the triviality of the deviations and the treatment of earlier amendments that had experienced more substantial problems [and] advised the Secretary that he was authorized to declare the amendment adopted. The Secretary did so.”

Benson was sentenced to four years in prison in 1995 but is still very actively promoting his beliefs. Trust me folks, every court out there has ultimately rejected Benson’s arguments.

The Cheek case: John L. Cheek stopped paying income tax claiming the tax laws were unconstitutionally enforced and the he did not have to pay tax. He ultimately lost all his civil claims and was forced to pay the tax. However, he was also criminally charged as well. He claimed he acted without the willfulness required for criminal conviction.

He was able to get his case to the Supreme Court on an issue of criminal intent. Cheek v. United States, 498 U.S. 192 (1991). He had a partial victory on a technicality in that the Court ruled that even though an honest belief may be irrational, if intent was not there, there could be no criminal liability. The Supreme Court remanded the case to the court below so new jury instructions could be given. Cheek’s victory was short lived, in that on remand, he was sentenced to a year in prison in 1991.

There are countless other tax protester arguments other than the 16th Amendment argument. One of my favorite arguments is to place all your assets and income in a foreign trust in a tax free haven with a foreigner in control of all the assets and income. Since only American citizens and resident aliens are taxed on worldwide income, the income deposited into this foreign trust would accumulate tax free.

However, most taxpayers never create the required “irrevocable” trust, but still retain control, either through a revocable trust or through a credit card access to the money, making the scheme illegal and criminal.

All of the promoters of these tax protest arguments and others like them are either serving time in Federal prison or have just been released. Taxes owed were all assessed and either paid or are due. No group or individual has ever successfully challenged the United States to collect income tax form its citizens.

Let’s start with our own local and state elected officials to move forward to legally change the system and to shut down these tax protesters for good. Remember if the tax advice is too good to be true, it isn’t.

(H Christopher Moss of Mount Pleasant , a CPA and attorney, is President and CEO of Infinite Partnerships Inc.)
AS PUBLISHED BY THE POST AND COURIER March 19, 2008

INCOME TAX IS OBSOLETE CLUNKER

Income Tax is Obsolete Clunker Tax

by Chris Moss CPA

Welcome to TaxView with Chris Moss CPA Tax Attorney

Remember the cash for clunkers program Congress created in 2009 for your old beat up car. You brought in your clunker car to the dealer and got cash to buy a new car to stimulate the economy? It seems that the 100 year old income tax has become an obsolete “clunker tax” and is not working. The income tax needs to be replaced with a new tax better suited for the 21srt century, a National Sales Tax. Stay tuned to TaxView with Chris Moss CPA Tax Attorney to find out why.

Historically income tax has always been somewhat of a voluntary tax. History shows most Americans when given the choice, choose not to pay. That is why in 1943 with the introduction of the W2 form in just two years revenue collection increased from $7 billion to $43 billion with 60 million Americans added to the tax rolls almost overnight.

Congress realized the power of the W2 with revenue collections as a percent of Gross Domestic Product surging from less than 6% to almost 20%. Unfortunately Americans would fight back against the W2 form. Slowly an underground economy thwarted forced W2 withholding now estimated to total almost $2 Trillion a year in unreported income. Congress fought back as well.
Over the last 30 years there has been an attempt by the Government to “capture” all that underground income by creating the 1099 network of reporting hoping for another W2-like increase in collections as percentage of GDP. The ultimate 1099 program was enacted in 2010 when Congress tried to capture all income from everyone, but Congress soon realized this was impossible to enforce let alone comply with. That law was repealed a year later in 2011.

The fact is that it is impossible in the 21st century to capture all income from 1099s unless the IRS audits everyone. The solution? An involuntary national sales tax, taxed at the source of each purchase at the same time state sales tax is collected. Easy, simple and very effective. But just in case you’re not convinced yet that a voluntary income tax does not work in the 21st century, there’s more: Identify theft, a 21st century crime is further eroding income tax collections.

The Government is losing at least $6 billion a year to identity theft as organized crime has moved its operations from drug dealing to identity theft. John Koskinen, the Commissioner of the IRS has recently commented that he has heard from police that “street crime is down because everybody is now filing false IRS returns”. Add identity theft to the underground economy and the IRS is unable to collect enough money each year to allow America to pay its bills. Further add additional tax revenue being lost to off shore illegal tax shelters and you have the triple crown of tax evasion: Underground economy, identify theft, and offshore tax shelters. No wonder our National Debt is dramatically approaching the unthinkable $20 Trillion level.

A National Sales Tax might just wipe out the Underground economy as well as drive organized crime out of the United States Treasury. As an added benefit, all off shore money would soon return home and many if not all tax shelters would disappear back to the 20th century where they belong. If Congress were bold enough to embark on a 21st century solution to increase revenue collection, perhaps annual deficits would be wiped out as well. Could the dramatic rise in collections as a percent of GDP from 1943 be recreated in 2015 with a National Sales Tax?

I don’t know about you all, but I don’t want to see our Government cut services to Americans, including our military, just because Congress does not have the courage to see that the income tax has become a “clunker tax”. If you all believe that the income tax is now an obsolete clunker, let your elected representatives know how you feel. Perhaps House Ways and Means and Senate Finance can best serve America by creating a new tax better suited for the 21st century rather than trying to reform a 100 year old clunker.

Thank you for joining us on TaxView with Chris Moss CPA Tax Attorney.

See you next time on TaxView with Chris Moss Tax Attorney CPA

Kindest regards
Chris Moss CPA