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Is Current Federal Income Tax Unconstitutional?

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The current federal income tax is argued by many to be unconstitutional on the basis of the 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Tax campaigners argue that the 16th Amendment was never properly ratified.

This contention comes in a large degree from a 1985 book called “The Law That Never Was” written by William J Benson.

Benson contends that the legislatures of various states passed the ratifying resolutions where the text of the amendment differed from the text proposed by Congress in terms of capitalisation, spelling and punctuation.

Benson holds that these differences make the ratification invalid.

He also goes on to say that one or more states rejected the amendment and that the states were falsely reported as having ratified the amendment.

The Benson arguments have been rejected in every court case where they have been raised and were explicitly ruled to be fraudulent in 2007.

Benson was sentenced to crimes in connection with a wilful failure to file tax returns in connection with over $100,000 of unreported income and his conviction was upheld on appeal.

He was sentenced to 4 years in prison and five years of probation.

Many tax protests have argued that because the 16th Amendment does not contain the word repealed, the amendment is ineffective to change the law.

This argument has been addressed in relation to the constitution which does not state that an amendment must be specifically repealed by another provision of the Constitution in order to be effective.

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Does the Truth Matter Anymore?

On legal challenges to the current federal income tax, the Court has held that the tax is constitutional and that the 16th Amendment is ratified by an appropriate number of states.

The IRS has shown signs of tiring of the challenges to its tax challenges in court.

Its enforcement actions through the courts for people who refuse to file their tax returns have been severe.

Many tax honesty advocates suggest that the courts are under duress from the IRS.

Much of the debate on the current federal income tax springs from William Benson’s defence reliance package and from Aaron Russo’s film from Freedom to Fascism.

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It’s all Liable Under the Supreme Court Reading of the Tax Code

Under the internal revenue code of 1939, income tax is payable gross income which includes gains, profits, and income derived from salaries, wages or compensation for personal service… all whatever kind in whatever form they had, or from professions, vocations, trades, businesses, commerce, or sales, or dealings in property, whether real or personal, growing out of the ownershipor use of or interest in such property.

Also liable under current federal income tax law is income from interest, rent, dividends, securities, or the transaction of any business carried on for gains or profits, or gains or profits and income derived from any source whatsoever.

While the tax honesty movement may be trying to open the eyes of the public to a potential miscarriage of justice, it is incredibly important that readers note that the courts have backed the IRS in almost every single case of tax honesty.

The penalties for not filing a tax return are severe and very likely to include a prison sentence. Whether the 16th Amendment was ratified or not, if you don’t pay your taxes, you’re going to go to prison.

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