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Of Special IRS Interest
“Compare this (40% to 75% total local, State and Federal tax rate) to the plight of medieval serfs. They only had to give the lord of the manor a third of their output and they were considered slaves. So what does that make us?” — Daniel J. Mitchell, economist
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, it was planned that way.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” — Albert Einstein
“[W]e must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...we [will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery. And the foreshores of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.” — President Thomas Jefferson
“Since the Right to receive income or earnings is a Right belonging to every person, this right cannot be taxed as a privilege.” — Jack Cole Co. v. MacFarland, 337 S.W. 2d. 453, 455-456 (Tenn. 1960)
“In general the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.” — Voltaire
“The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles is paid chiefly by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboard and frontiers only, and incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile citizens, it may be the pleasure and the pride of an American to ask, What farmer, what mechanic, what laborer ever sees a taxgatherer of the United States?” — Thomas Jefferson, 2nd Inaugural Address
“There is no method of steering clear of this inconvenience, but by authorizing the national government to raise its own revenues in its own way. Imposts, excises, and, in general, all duties upon articles of consumption, may be compared to a fluid, which will, in time, find its level with the means of paying them. The amount to be contributed by each citizen will in a degree be at his own option, and can be regulated by an attention to his resources. The rich may be extravagant, the poor can be frugal; and private oppression may always be avoided by a judicious selection of objects proper for such impositions. If inequalities should arise in some States from duties on particular objects, these will, in all probability, be counterbalanced by proportional inequalities in other States, from the duties on other objects. In the course of time and things, an equilibrium, as far as it is attainable in so complicated a subject, will be established everywhere.” — Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers 79.
“In the general course of human nature, a power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will.” — Alexander Hamilton
“A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.” — Alfred Alder
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” — Tacitus, 56-120 A.D.
“It is a miserable slavery where the law is vague or uncertain. Misera est servitus, ubi jus est vagum aut incertum.” — Maxim of law (Editors note: Congressman Rob Gramms of Minnesota said recently (1999) in Congress that the code consists of over 7,000,000 words, and has been changed 5,400 times since 1986.)
“The tax system is stacked against the average taxpayer.” — Senator Edward M. Kennedy
“No nation ever taxed itself into prosperity.” — President Ronald Reagan
“There is no law requiring a person to apply for a Social Security number, and there is no section of title 18, United States Code, making it a crime to not have a social security number.” — Dorcas R. Hardy, former Commissioner of Social Security
“The suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless establishments and expenses, enabled us to discontinue our internal taxes. These covering our land with officers and opening our door to their intrusions, had already begun that process of domiciliary vexation which once entered is scarcely to be restrained from reaching, successively, every article of property and produce.” — Thomas Jefferson
“The IRS has become morally corrupted by the enormous power which we in Congress have unwisely entrusted to it. Too often it acts like a Gestapo preying upon defenseless citizens.” — Senator Edward V. Long
“Apart from constitutional considerations, no-knock laws are bad. If its people are to have a respect for law, a nation must have respectable laws, and no law is respectable if it authorizes officers to act like burglars, and robs the people of the only means they have for determining whether those who seek to invade their habitations violently or by stealth are officers or burglars.” — Senator Sam Ervin
“The Privacy Act, if enforced would be a pretty good thing. But the government doesn’t like it. Government has an insatiable appetite for power, and it will not stop usurping power unless it is restrained by laws they cannot repeal or nullify. There are mighty few laws they cannot nullify.” — Senator Sam Ervin, principal sponsor of the Privacy Act of 1974
“An internal tax on consumption essentially differs from a tax on visible property because, in the last case, nothing is more requisite than an account of what a man appears to be possessed of, whilst, in the other, it is necessary to know the quantity and quality of the article consumed; and in order to attain that knowledge a severe inquisition must take place... and... extraordinary & dangerous powers must be given to the collectors.” — Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury
“It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?” — Madison, Federalist Papers 62
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” — Frederic Bastiat
“But, sir, the people themselves have it in their power effectually to resist usurpation, without being driven to an appeal of arms. An act of usurpation is not obligatory; it is not law; and any man may be justified in his resistance. Let him be considered as a criminal by the general government, yet only his fellow-citizens can convict him; they are his jury, and if they pronounce him innocent, not all the powers of Congress can hurt him; and innocent they certainly will pronounce him, if the supposed law he resisted was an act of usurpation.” — Theophilus Parsons, Massachusetts Convention for ratification of the U.S. Constitution
“He does not appear to have retained his consent, if he have changed anything through the means of a party threatening. Non videtur consensum retinuisse si quis ex praescripto minantis aliquid immutavit.” — Maxim of law
“Maybe we ought to see that every person who gets a tax return receives a copy of the Communist Manifesto with it so he can see what’s happening to him.” — T. Coleman Andrews, Commissioner of IRS, May 25, 1956 in U.S. News & World Report.
“100% of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the Federal Debt... all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services taxpayers expect from government.” — 1984 Grace Commission report submitted to President Ronald Reagan
“If no information or return is filed, [the] Internal Revenue Service cannot assess you.” — Gary Makovski, Special IRS Agent, testifying under oath in U.S. v. Lloyd
“The United States has a system of taxation by confession.” — Hugo Black, Supreme Court Justice, in U.S. v. Kahriger
“Only the rare taxpayer would be likely to know that he could refuse to produce his records to IRS agents... Who would believe the ironic truth that the cooperative taxpayer fares much worse than the individual who relies upon his constitutional rights.” — Judge Cummings, U.S. Federal Judge, in U.S. v. Dickerson (7th Circuit 1969)
“All we have to do now is to inform the public that the payment of social security taxes is voluntary and watch the mass exodus.” — Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, January 24, 1996
“To lay with one hand the power of government on the property of the citizen, and with the other to bestow it on favored individuals... is none the less robbery because it is... called taxation.” — United States Supreme Court in Loan Association v. Topeka (1874)
“If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government...” — Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers 28.
“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” — Thomas Jefferson
“The great mass of people... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.” — Adolph Hitler (1889-1945), Mein Kampf
“Anyone who isn’t confused really doesn’t understand the situation.” — Edward R. Murrow
Eight decades of amendments and accretions to the Code have produced a virtually impenetrable maze. The rules are unintelligible to most citizens—Including those who hold advanced degrees and including many who specialize in tax law. The rules are equally mysterious to many government employees who are charged with administering and enforcing the law.
It is also a known fact that the Internal Revenue Code is a very easily misunderstood area of law, even misunderstood by trained professionals. Judges and lawyers admittedly do not know the tax laws."” — Ms. Shirley D. Peterson, former Commissioner of the IRS made in a "Tax Policy Lecture" before Southern Methodist University, on April 14, 1993
“God has commanded us to preserve our assets to create an inheritance for our children. With the criminal IRS and other government agencies after our assets at all times, it is difficult to make that preservation.” — Pastor Everett Sileven, Faith Baptist Church, Louisville, Nebraska
“‘Income,’ as used in the statute should be given the meaning so as not to include everything that comes in. The true function of the words ‘gains’ and ‘profits’ is to limit the meaning of the word "income."” — So. Pacific v. Lowe, 238 F.847 (1917)
“In a recent conversation with an official at the Internal Revenue Service, I was amazed when he told me that ’If the taxpayers of this country ever discover that the IRS operates on 90% bluff the entire system will collapse.” — Henry Bellmon, Senator (1969)
“The high-handed bureaucratic excesses of the IRS are a national disgrace... riding roughshod over the taxpayers and making a joke out of our rule of laws.” — Senator Paul Laxalt
“As you know, the Senate Finance Committee held a series of hearings on problems with the complex tax code and the IRS. These hearings brought public many horror stories on the tactics used by the IRS. Additionally, my office received an anonymous fax which indicated that the regional offices of the IRS were maintaining quotas on collection agents; in effect rewarding these agents not for accuracy, but for how much they collected. I immediately contacted the new IRS Director who assured me publicly that practice would end. This practice has long been illegal, and legislation has now been passed that will strengthen the agency responsible for curbing this and other abuses."” — Senator Richard Bryan, Nevada: November 9, 1999.
“If the law does not assure that tax returns filed by Americans will not be turned against them, our system of voluntary compliance with the tax laws faces a doubtful future.” — Senator Frank Church, Chairman, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations, 94th Congress, First Session, Volume 3, Internal Revenue Service (October 2, 1975)
“A hand from Washington will be stretched out and placed upon every man’s business; the eye of the federal inspector will be in every man’s counting house.... The law will of necessity have inquisical features, it will provide penalties, it will create complicated machinery. Under it, men will be hauled into courts distant from their homes. Heavy fines imposed by distant and unfamiliar tribunals will constantly menace the taxpayer. An army of federal inspectors, spies, arid detectives will descend upon the state.” — Virginia House Speaker Richard E. Byrd, 1910, predicting what would happen It the federal Congress were to enact a federal Income tax.
“Let me point this out now. Your income tax is 100 percent voluntary and your liquor tax is 100 percent enforced tax. Now the situation is as different as day and night. Consequently, your same rules just will not apply...” — Dwight E. Avis, Head of ATF, IRS—House Ways and Means Subcommittee Hearings—1953
“The real point of audits is to instill fear, not to extract revenue; the IRS aims at winning through intimidation and (thereby) getting maximum voluntary compliance.” — Paul Strassel, Former IRS Headquarters Agent “Wall St. Journal”, 1/28/80
“The IRS’s goal is to increase the rate at which taxpayers voluntarily pay their taxes from the current 82.3% to 90% by 2001.” — The Washington Post front page Dec. 2, 1993, IRS Hopes Change
“Each year American taxpayers voluntarily file their tax returns and make a special effort to pay the taxes they owe.” — Johnie M. Walters IRS Commissioner, 1971 Form 1040 Booklet
From Publication 21/1998 update: Do you have to file a tax return and pay taxes?
Answer from Pub. 21: The U. S. income tax system is built on the idea of “voluntary compliance.” This means that it is left to the taxpayer to keep the necessary records, file a return on time, pay any required taxes, and meet any other requirements of the tax law. The system is built on trust in the citizens to know their responsibilities and to do what needs to be done. Taxpayers voluntarily follow the steps the tax system lays out. Failure to do so can result in penalties.
Two aspects of the Federal Income Tax system—voluntary compliance with the law and self-assessment of tax - make it important for you to understand your rights and responsibilities as a taxpayer. ’Voluntary compliance’ places on the taxpayer the responsibility for filing an income tax return. You must decide whether the law requires you to file a return. If it does, you must file your return by the date it is due. — IRS Publication 21
“You are among the millions of Americans who comply with the tax law voluntarily.” — 1992 Form 1040 Tax Instruction Booklet
“Our tax system is based on individual self-assessment and voluntary compliance.” — Mortimer Caplin, IRS Commissioner, 1975 IRS IR Audit Manual
“The mission of the service is to encourage and achieve the highest possible degree of voluntary compliance.” — Donald C. Alexander, IRS Commissioner, Federal Register, March 1974
“The IRS’s primary task is to collect taxes under a voluntary compliance system.” — Jerome Kurtz IRS Commissioner, 1980 IR Annual Report
“We have a voluntary compliance system.” — Fred Goldberg, IRS Commissioner, Nightline with Ted Koppel, Apr.13, 1990
“Our system of taxation is based on voluntary assessment and payment, not upon distraint.” — United States v. Flora, 362 US 145 (1958)
“When you doubt, do not act. Quod dubitas, ne feceris.” — Maxim of law
“Where the law is uncertain, there is no law. Ubi jus incertum, ibi jus nullum.” — Maxim of law
“When the law fails to serve as a rule, almost everything ought to be suspected. Ubi non adest norma legis, omnia quasi pro suspectis habenda sunt.” — Maxim of law
“Where there is no authority to enforce, there is no authority to obey. Ubi non est condendi auctoritas, ibi non est parendi necessitas.” — Maxim of law
“Resignation is the spontaneous relinquishment of one’s own right. Resignatio est juris proprii spontanea refutatio.” — Maxim of law
“A wrong is not done to one who knows and wills it. Scientia et volunti non fit injuria.” — Maxim of law
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