Positive Liberty

(by Jim Babka, with tremendous assistance from the late Harry Browne)

Perhaps you’ve been told that you don’t have to pay the Income Tax. I’m sorry to be the one to break the bad news to you, but all of the theories floating around are based on misguided or dangerous interpretations of the income tax rules. And, as I’ll demonstrate later in this article, they’re not the best way to end the Income Tax and win a much smaller, constitutionally limited government.

I’ve been presented with several of these plans over the years by scores of well-meaning, patriotic people. In fact, my friend, the late Harry Browne (whose very words appear throughout this piece), looked at those plans starting back in 1962. Back then he worked professionally promoting the Liberty Amendment – a proposed constitutional amendment that repeals the Sixteenth Amendment (income tax) and restores the Tenth Amendment (limiting federal powers; federalism).

He continued to look at these schemes in the decades that followed. He wouldn’t recommend a single one of them.

Neither would I.

The theories advanced by the proprietors of these schemes usually include one or more of following contentions:

• Congress has never passed a law requiring you to pay taxes;
• The 16th Amendment (authorizing an income tax) was never actually ratified;
• The Internal Revenue Code applies only to corporations, or that it doesn’t apply to wages and salaries, or that it applies only in U.S. possessions like Guam or the Virgin Islands;
• The IRS itself says that paying income tax is voluntary;
• A legal obligation to file a return that could incriminate you violates the 5th Amendment to the Constitution. (It is beyond the scope of this article to examine these claims. However, if you believe there’s no law requiring you to pay income tax, click here. For a more detailed review of various tax-protest plans, click here to read a well-written article by Daniel J. Pilla. Even the IRS itself has addressed the issue directly, contrary to one opinion circulating on the net, click here, and note items #5 and #8.)

It takes a lot of guts to fight the State head-on. If you’re thinking about doing it anyway, there are two things you should be aware of.

People Go to Prison

First, it doesn’t matter whether you believe the income tax is “legal.” Whether or not it is, many people who don’t pay income tax are put in prison.

One of the best-known promoters of these schemes has been in prison three times — each time for tax-related offenses. During his time in prison, he usually figures out what was wrong with his plan — and he comes out with a new, safer way of getting around the system.

Many others who have tried these schemes have paid dearly for it. Some may have made a conscious, patriotic decision to protest the income tax system, aware of the consequences and willing to pay the price. If that was the case, I’d say I admire their bravery and spirit. Unfortunately, most of them went to prison and/or lost their homes because they thought there was a way to evade taxes without danger.

I believe it is irresponsible for someone to encourage other people to take that risk when the person doing the encouraging is not going to suffer their consequences. None of these programs comes with a guarantee to redeem your home when the IRS sells it at auction.

No matter how strong the argument someone makes to claim you don’t have to pay income tax, remember that the question isn’t: Is the logic correct? The question is: Do people go to prison for following it?

Don’t Be Fooled by IRS Inattention

Second, the claims usually are accompanied by stories of people who have followed the recommended procedure for years and have never been bothered by the IRS.

If the Internal Revenue Service is aware that you haven’t paid your taxes for a year or two, it may send you a notice asking whether you’ve filed a return that they missed. If you don’t answer or you tell the IRS you have no legal obligation to pay, and the IRS stops sending you notices, it isn’t because the IRS has given up on you.

Instead, the IRS will give you enough rope to hang yourself. The IRS, like any bureaucracy, moves at a glacial pace. But in this instance, that’s to their advantage, not yours. They’re OK with you going several years without paying tax for two reasons: (1) to establish that it was part of a pattern of deliberate evasion, rather than an isolated mistake; and (2) to allow the unpaid taxes, penalties, and interest to accumulate to a size that makes it worth prosecuting you.

Every one of the you-don’t-have-to-pay-income-tax programs started out with “air tight” arguments that supposedly avoided the pitfalls of all the other you-don’t-have-to-pay-income-tax movements — the “mistaken” ones that had sent people to prison. But, eventually, people do go to prison, and we don’t want you to be one of them.

And it all may be for naught, because promoting such schemes does nothing to show people that we don’t need big government!

I’ve Heard It All Before

No matter how good you think the latest tax evasion plan is, I’ll tell you now that I’m not going to drop what I’m doing to investigate it. And just because I don’t sign up for one of the tax protester programs doesn’t mean I’m going after heated slave quarters, while someone else is pursuing abolition. I’m quite busy doing the things I believe (based on extensive training and experience) will best advance the cause of small, limited government – including ending the income tax. I think it’s fair, in this case, to say that I’ve already done my due diligence on this subject, and now I want to move on with my life to investigate other things that are likely to be more fruitful to me.

How to Get Rid of the Income Tax

We the people will get rid of the income tax only when we show enough Americans that they will be far better off by reducing government dramatically so that they can be entirely free of the Income Tax. In most cases, that should be far easier to achieve than to convince the American people that the Income Tax is illegal. It’s been all-too-easy for the American people to write-off tax protest movements as kooky or fringe.

On the other hand, the American people have shown they’ll support a radical change if it’s actually offered to them. With precious little positive publicity and every prominent politician and newspaper taking a stand against repeal, the Small Government Initiative (2002) in liberal Massachusetts got 45% of the vote for repealing the state income tax.

The reason there is no current public support for repealing the federal income tax is because no organization is focused on making it happen. Instead, activists who would gladly see the end of the income tax are busy supporting puny tax cuts, a flat tax that will never remain flat, or some other, more complicated scheme.

I believe someone should be pointing out the huge personal benefits of repealing the income tax.

In addition, I believe that someone should be pointing out the tremendous harm that taxpayer money buys and developing ways to change the perverted incentives of our current system where government is going to grow each and every year, guaranteed. I am working full-time on the second part of that project (which is to say, I’m taking my own advice) because I believe if everyone understood just how bad Big Government really hurts all of us, there would be much less support for retaining the income tax.

Why Tax Evasion Fails as a Freedom Strategy

You see, by trying to focus on legalisms, tax evasion prophets don’t demonstrate that government shouldn’t be taxing your income. People have been duped, by schools, the mainstream media, etc., into believing that they’re doing their patriotic duty by paying taxes — that the programs of the State are necessary, perhaps even good. They’re not. Government uses your tax dollars to hurt you, your family, and your community.

Even worse, this movement sacrifices freedom activists on the altar of big government. We’ve heard of marriages destroyed, prison sentences served, and massive confiscation of possessions – all in fights with the IRS. It’s not a news flash to say that the IRS operates in an unconstitutional fashion. But it seems like almost no one realizes that as long as government is as big as it is, there will always be such a Gestapo-like agency.

I want to be clear: It’s your right to fight back by not filing or paying your income tax. Gandhi himself might approve.

And after reading this article, you may still believe it’s a worthwhile strategy to win back our freedom. If so, then we’d ask you to acknowledge that there’s more than one way to approach this subject.

I honestly believe my efforts have little or nothing to offer that would add to the efforts of folks like, just for example, Bob Schulz. But if you still believe that the taxes are illegal, perhaps you’ll see how the Downsize DC approach complements — the same way a knife complements a fork. You wouldn’t want to have two of the same implements at the dinner table, and you shouldn’t hope for duplication here. If you don’t, I don’t want to bicker with you. But to anyone with an open mind, I say . . .

I want to mass market the damage government does with tax dollars. I want to open hearts and minds. Many who would consider my message would be close-minded to a tax protester’s method.

I think the evidence is clear: Nearly all successful politicians are panderers, not leaders. But that can be worked to our advantage! If sufficient demand was created to end destructive, un-Constitutional programs and boondoggles, then some opportunistic politicians would surely respond. It is up to us to create that sufficient demand.

My group, DownsizeDC.org, will set out to build such a constituency through word of mouth, direct marketing, and advertising. We are already using the Internet in dramatic fashion to consolidate our crusade.

Campaigns to repeal the income tax and campaigns to reduce government (like DownsizeDC.org) to its constitutional functions will give thousands of people the realization that big government is not only unnecessary, but also harmful. The result should be thousands of new DC Downsizers.

The result of tax evasion campaigns will be thousands of new federal prisoners and perhaps a few new freedom activists. To me, the choice is obvious.

But I ask you: Don’t you want more people to agree with us – to know what we know and to understand what we understand? Don’t we want to swell the ranks of those who will join us in the fight for smaller government?

If so, you’ll want to support a mass-marketing, educational campaign like DownsizeDC.org – even if you believe you don’t have to pay the income tax.

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