LAW AND ANALYSIS
"The Sixteenth Amendment provides that Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on income, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states and without regard to any census or enumeration. U.S. CONST. amend. XVI. The United States Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the income tax laws enacted subsequent to ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment. See, e.g., Brushaber v. Union Pac. R.R. Co., 240 U.S. 1 (1916) (relying on the Sixteenth Amendment in holding that the income tax provisions of the Tariff Act of 1913 were not unconstitutional).
Promoters who claim that the federal income tax is unconstitutional often make frivolous arguments that there were defects in the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment by the states. There are a number of variations on these frivolous arguments: (i) versions of the Amendment ratified by the states contained defects in spelling, punctuation, wording, or capitalization; (ii) state legislatures did not follow proper procedures in ratifying the amendment; (iii) state governors did not sign the amendment; (iv) one or more of the states that ratified the Amendment was not legally a state; and (v) the Amendment does not contain an enabling clause. These arguments have no merit, and courts have consistently rejected all challenges to the constitutionality of the federal income tax following enactment of the Sixteenth Amendment. See Knoblauch v. Commissioner, 749 F.2d 200, 201 (5th Cir. 1984) (“Every court that has considered this argument has rejected it.”). Arguments to the contrary are frivolous.
The Fifth Amendment prevents the federal government from taking property without due process of law. U.S. CONST. amend. V. Due process generally includes a right to notice and an opportunity to be heard. The Supreme Court has held that the procedures contained in the Internal Revenue Code fully satisfy the due process rights of taxpayers. See Phillips v. Commissioner, 283 U.S. 589, 595-99 (1931) (“The right of the United States to collect its internal revenue by summary administrative proceedings has long been settled. Where, as here, adequate opportunity is afforded for a later judicial determination of the legal rights, summary proceedings to secure prompt performance of pecuniary obligations to the government have been consistently sustained.”). The argument that due process requires a hearing before tax has to be paid or can be withheld from wages is frivolous.
The federal income tax only requires payment of taxes on a person’s income. It does not force a person to labor involuntarily, or to labor at all. The Thirteenth Amendment prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment when convicted of a crime. U.S. CONST. amend. XIII. The Thirteenth Amendment does not proscribe taxation. See Abney v. Campbell, 206 F.2d 836, 841 (5th Cir. 1953) (The specification, that the act violates the Thirteenth Amendment by imposing involuntary servitude upon an employer of domestic servants, seems to us far-fetched, indeed frivolous.”). Moreover, a prison sentence for failing to file a federal income tax return is not prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment. See United States v. Drefke, 707 F.2d 978, 983 (8th Cir. 1983) (“The Thirteenth Amendment, however, is inapplicable where involuntary servitude is imposed as punishment for a crime.”). Failing to file a federal income tax return or to pay federal income tax based on the argument that it would constitute involuntary servitude is frivolous. "
Paul is praising common criminals.
Maybe he should have stuck to medicine.
