We went over this here in Arkansas a man refused to pay his taxes based on the fact that there is no law that says we have to, his lawyer told the judge to show him the statute he was being charged under and the judge REFUSED.

How can you be convicted under a law that does not exist?

I think its the "we've got big guns and will lock you away if you won't pay" law.

A constitutionalist friend in the next town enjoys helping patriots get out of the system. He finds great pleasure in going down to the IRS office with them and have the new patriot ask the agent to show the statute and implementing regulation that demands that a citizen pay income tax. It flusters the Hell out of the little agents!

Why does the IRS simply not add the language to the code?

So TC is there REALLY no law?

I know the judge here just locked the guy up and basicaly said THERES YOR LAW BUDDY, but NEVER showed the statute.

Again how can you be jailed for a law that does not exist?

To my best recollection, State taxes we have to pay, Federal why technically shouldn't. The Law is something like, .......under the state that governs them, since Washington D.C. is not a state, the should not have any governing control over taxes.

isnt there a amendment about income tax? or is that just me

Most people that have fought this have ended up in prison. It's actually kind of amusing.

As far as I have seen there is no law that compels you to pay Federal income tax.
There are plenty of laws about what happens when you "Fail to pay" said taxes.
It's an interesting legal situation that I'm neither rich enough or poor enough to challenge.

Great research project material.

Just quit complaining and pay the taxes is my philosophy...

If you want education and government and high standard of life, you'll pay your taxes.

Most people that have fought this have ended up in prison. It's actually kind of amusing.

The one here did and they almost took his lawyer too

Originally posted by MrJingles
Just quit complaining and pay the taxes is my philosophy...

If you want education and government and high standard of life, you'll pay your taxes.

Amen. People should stop being bitches and just pay taxes like everyone else in the world. It's like people want to revert to a system where everyone just hordes their money and the infrastructure of the country crumbles around them.

So shell out the dough and enjoy your nice public libraries, schools, and highways.

Personally, I'm sick of paying for the american government "knife and gun club"... I watch around here as public schools get worse and worse, the teachers give less and less of a #, and private/charter schools (schools that don't rely on the government money) getting better and better! Right now it seems like all our tax money is being spent on military so we can go invade some country that doesn't run the way our government thinks it should. Because I'm an American Citizen, I'm forced to pay for the government's wars... wars against supposed terrorism, wars against comunism, and wars against drugs.

Yes, I said forced... like was stated earlier, there is no law that says we have to pay taxxes, but there is a law that says we go to jail if we don't. The laws that tell us what happens if we don't are really messed up... I met a guy in county jail that was getting sent away for 5 years (unable to support his wife and 3 kids, unable to continue his teaching career, etc...) just because he wrote notes on most of his reciepts (such as dates, or persons names involved with the trabnsaction, etc...). When he wrote the notes, he apparently 'altered' the information. They basically told him he was screwed because he didn't know that 'altering a document' meant anything... even having more dust on it than when the document was written! Sad thing is that they wouldn't just allow him to redo his taxxes and withdraw any document that was apparently 'altered'. #ing sad, if you ask me! I'm willing to bet they spend more tax money prosecuting and incarcerating him than they would have made off of him, but oh well... that's the way our gov works and that is why our gov will ultimatly fail. jackasses.

I remember hearing somewhere that there is a way to avoid prosecution from failure to pay taxes. The catch is- if you have never filed before you cannot be prosecuted.

As they say, there are only two certainties - death and taxes. And when they break the human genome, we won't have to worry about death. Taxes will always be here.

Originally posted by Journey
I remember hearing somewhere that there is a way to avoid prosecution from failure to pay taxes. The catch is- if you have never filed before you cannot be prosecuted.

Ahhh, so if you voluntarily file for taxes the first time, then they have your ass? I suppose a person unwittingly signs a lifetime contract with them when they file their first tax form/s. Hmmmm...

[Edited on 3-30-2004 by EmbryonicEssence]

IRS Form 4029 is used to claim exemption from social security and medicare taxes, but it does not apply to federal income tax. You must be a part of a religious group that opposes such benefits. I'm sure there are all sorts of ways to claim exemption from paying taxes.