Today, April 15, 2024, is the final day where many Americans file their federal income tax returns, waiving their constitutional right under the Fourth Amendment to be secure in their papers and effects, and their Fifth Amendment right not to be compelled to be a witness against themselves. To add insult-to-injury, those that timely filed their returns signed them under penalties of perjury, i.e., if they made a mistake or interpreted the tax laws differently from the IRS, they could end up in prison for 5 years.
However, many of you have postponed the inevitable until October 15, 2024, by filing an extension… this will also reduce your chances of an audit, especially if you file a paper return.
The IRS recently released the statistics for the 2021 tax year. The Top 1% paid 45.8% of Federal Income Taxes; the Top 10% paid 75.8%; the Top 25% paid 89.2%; and the Top 50% paid 97.7% of the Federal Income Taxes in 2021. The Bottom 50% paid only 2.3% of the Federal Income Taxes with an Average Tax Rate of 3.3%, while the Average Tax Rate for the Top 1% was 25.9%. These stats prove that Biden and the Democrats are outright liars when they say that the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes; and the wealthy’s tax rates are less than their secretaries and employees… a 25.9% tax rate for the wealthy is certainly not less than the 3.3% rate paid by the Bottom 50%, that is, unless you’re a Democrat!?!
I apologize to all you Democrats who know better. However, it’s your political leadership that continues to promote these falsehoods. These lies have been continually repeated so often that a vast number of Americans believe they are true.
Why do the majority of Americans seem to support this unconstitutional system of taxation? For the tax year 2021, the Bottom 50% filed 76,794,954 tax returns with an average tax paid of $667; many in this category paid no taxes and received refundable tax credits, which was the only reason they filed returns in the first place.
Studies suggest 60% of U.S. households don’t pay federal income tax after deductions and credits. This does not necessarily mean they do not file tax returns, as they may be eligible for refunds from tax credits, i.e., welfare benefits funded through the tax system.
When 60% of American households don’t pay any taxes and many profit from welfare benefits paid through the tax system, along with the constant drum-beating by the Democratic party that the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes, the political elite are able to use the current tax laws to unconstitutionally redistribute income and wealth; and subsidize or penalize various industries and economic groups.
As Bob Livingston wrote, the real purpose of the federal income tax “is to regulate consumption, control behavior, control and redistribute wealth, and compile dossiers on all [productive] citizens.” The federal income tax laws are complicated, convoluted, and purposely subject to a myriad of interpretations. All this and don’t forget, the administration and collection of the federal income tax is unconstitutional.
The federal income tax has survived and gotten much more illegitimate because: (1) Approximately 60% of U.S. households aren’t hampered by the federal income tax laws and many benefit through refundable tax credits, i.e., welfare benefits; (2) the poor and middle classes envy of the wealthy, which is heavily promoted by the Liberals/Progressives pitting the poor and middle classes against the wealthy; and (3) Government-controlled compulsory schooling which has led most Americans to believe they live in a Democracy, not a Constitutional Republic with written guarantees protecting unalienable rights, especially the right to property and to one’s own labor without government interference.
At the Constitutional Convention, the Founders/Framers traced the evils they were facing to “the turbulence and follies of democracy” and gave us a Constitutional Republic. Today, this belief in Democracy has led to wages and earnings not keeping up with inflation, high energy prices, “pain at the pump,” skyrocketing food prices, increased cost of insurance, housing and health care, ad infinitum.
The Founders of the United States never anticipated an individual income tax; they thought it to be a slave tax. The taxes assessed while the Founders were alive were primarily taxes on consumption and imports. Not only was an income tax considered a slave tax, but the Constitution made it almost impossible to administer because it was a Direct Tax subject to apportionment.
In addition, and just as important, the Government would have to rely on the honesty of all citizens to pay the proper amount of tax since an audit by Government—the IRS did not exist while the Founders were alive[1]—would be unconstitutional under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
The U.S. individual income tax, as administered today by the IRS is unconstitutional. The support for this position can be found in my LL.M. thesis (summa cum laude), The U.S. Individual Income Tax is Incompatible with a Free Society; it is available at www.jeffersoniangroup.com or directly from Amazon.com.
Please forward this blog to family members, friends, neighbors, and associates.
Also, go to our website and sign the petition, Abolish IRS.
To restore the experiment in individual freedom started by our Founders, we must get past the propaganda, require truth in politics, and reduce the size of government. Vote for those who want to reduce taxes and regulations, shrink the size of government, and destroy the Deep State. Those that want to Make America Great Again believe in all of the above and want to restore law and order, making it safe to live, work, and visit our formerly great cities throughout the United States.
We must get the word out! The more people that understand the fraud that has been perpetrated against them, the more likely the Sixteenth Amendment can be repealed and the IRS, as we know it today, would have no impact or interaction with most Americans.
Until then, file your tax returns and pay your taxes… it is extremely costly and difficult to “fight city hall.”
Dum Spiro Spero—While I breathe, I hope.
Slainte mhath,
Robert (Mike) G. Beard Jr., C.P.A., C.G.M.A., J.D., LL.M.
[1] From 1776 through 1862 there was no income tax. In response to the Civil War, the position of Commissioner of Internal Revenue was created, and an income tax was enacted to fund the war effort, which was a temporary measure that expired after the war. After the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913, the Bureau of Internal Revenue was created, which was renamed the Internal Revenue Service in 1953.