2009-09-27

The Demonick Diatribes - #2

The Tax Withholding Shell Game:  How to start a tax revolt

The U.S. Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787.  For the next 126 years, except for 11 years during the Civil War, the country survived quite well with no income tax.  The 16th amendment was ratified in February 1913 and income tax legislation was passed by congress the following October. The amendment states in its entirety:

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."

To paraphrase, "The Congress can take whatever they can and do with it whatever they want."  It is surprising to me the amendment was not vociferously opposed by the states.  Surprisingly the strongest opposition came from the Northeast, chief among them was NY, today one of the MOST heavily taxed states in the union.  In the end only 6 of the 48 states did not ratify the amendment, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Utah, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida. 

The original 1913 legislation authorized the withholding of income tax at the source, that is, by the employer before the taxpayer received their pay.  The U.S. citizens of the early 1900s were obviously much smarter than those of today, because they showed so much annoyance at this withholding scheme that it was scrapped 4 years later in 1917.  At a time when civil servants actually believed they served rather than ruled Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo agreed and recommended this withholding be repealed.  Yes, people actually received all their salary and they had to write checks to the government themselves.

It was not until the "Current Tax Payment Act of 1943" became law in the 3rd term of the reign of Franklin D. Roosevelt that income tax withholding was ressurected.  Apparently FDR's "New Deal" had done its job well of beating down the U.S. populace, as no effective opposition to tax withholding was mounted, and this abomination was made the law of the land.  Since then hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayers have come to accept that government comes first, and all others after.  We now accept the situation where the government has its hand in our pockets before we do.  We have come to not even consider the money we do not see as our own.  The reality is that we now receive what the government leaves us, and we have come to accept the only the leavings.

The repeal of tax withholding would mean every wage earning taxpayer would receive all of their pay.  No funds would "painlessly" be stolen for income tax, Social (in)Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.  If your salary was $50,000 a year then each year the checks you received from your employer would add up to $50,000.  An amazing and simple concept.  Each taxpayer would be responsible to pay the various levels of government every month or every quarter.   

Were tax withholding repealed I predict a tax revolt in the U.S. within a year.

And why is that?  We would all be paying the exact same amount in taxes right down to the penny.  What would change?  What would change is we would all feel like our money was OUR money, it would be in our pocket and we would have to reach in and hand some to the government.  We would FEEL the government was taking OUR hard-earned money, not granting us whatever was left. 

Tax withholding enables the continuing rape of the U.S. taxpayer. 

True Conservatives, if any still existed, should explain this to the American people, should pose the question above, "why would you feel differently about paying the exact same amount in taxes after receiving your paycheck as opposed to before receiving your paycheck?"

It's your money; you earned it; the government is a necessary parasite, but a parasite never the less. 

And don't you forget it.