Why Americans Must Pay Federal Income Tax
Recently, I came across an old documentary called America: Freedom to Fascism (2006). It's split into two parts, and the first half focuses on the controversial argument that there isn’t an actual law on the books which requires Americans to pay federal income tax, so therefore they shouldn't.
The director of the film was the late Aaron Russo (1943-2007), who has gone down in history as more of a standard Hollywood vet than a conspiracy theorist. But later in life he did drop a couple of documentaries, including this one, which are anti-US government, so to speak.
NO MANDATORY FEDERAL INCOME TAX LAW ON THE BOOKS
If there's one thing Freedom to Fascism does successfully argue, it's that there is not in fact a statutory law which requires average Americans to pay federal income tax. But despite acknowledgement of that fact, the matter is quite complicated,
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has officially chimed on the matter via this webpage which again, you'd have to sorta be adept in US constitutional law to understand. But of course, their position differs from the likes of Aaron Russo, which said webpage refers to as "frivolous tax arguments".
THE FEDERAL RESERVE
Despite having the term “federal” in its title, the Federal Reserve is not a government institution. Rather, it is a private bank that is responsible for printing the US Dollar and, according to the documentary, regulating its value.
In recent years, that shocking fact, that the Federal Reserve is not actually part of the government, has become more or less common knowledge, particularly within conspiracy theory circles. In other words, most Americans grow up believing that the Federal Reserve is within the government, which, to reiterate, it is not.
THE IRS
As for the IRS, who are responsible for collecting federal taxes, it is a department of the US government. So basically IRS agents, despite being government employees, work on behalf of the Federal Reserve (which we will get into later). That shows how powerful the Reserve actually is, that they have an entire section of the government basically acting as its collection agency.
So here's an interesting fact. One of the hottest post-pandemic employers in the United States is actually the Internal Revenue Service. Last year, it was reported that they intend "to hire nearly 20,000 new employees and deploy new technology over the next two years, as (the IRS) ramps up an $80 billion investment plan to improve tax enforcement and customer service". So whether or not there's an actual law mandating that Americans must pay federal income tax, the powers-that-be very much intend to collect them regardless.
Even prior to setting out to garner tens of thousands of new hires, recently the IRS has become increasingly serious in terms of collecting taxes. Relatedly, just yesterday another report came out indicating that "IRS audits are about to surge". And of those new hires, by the looks of things a significant number of them will be IRS-CI agents, i.e. those who are "authorized by law to carry and use firearms".
Besides focusing on how implementing federal income tax, the way such is currently conducted, is illegal, Freedom to Fascism relatedly puts a premium on depicting the IRS as sort of a tyrannical force. As implied in the film, even other law enforcement arms of the government, such as the FBI, appear to be intimidated by them. And the documentary includes a couple of horror stories based on IRS actions, such as that of legendary boxer and undisputed American hero Joe Lewis.
I did a little bit of digging (based on information revealed in the film) and discovered that it is in fact true that an American cannot be imprisoned for failing to pay federal tax, so long as he or she files a tax return. But if you're unfortunate enough to be accused by the IRS of tax evasion, hopefully they won't come to jack or embarrass you, and you'll be able to resolve the matter expeditiously.
WHY AMERICANS MUST PAY TAXES
The American government is unique in that it was founded out of revolution. Moreover, many of the founders and prominent politicians from the earlier days of US history were reportedly against big government. They had successfully freed themselves from the British monarchy while simultaneously being in the process of colonizing what at the time must've felt like an endless landmass. So they were more freedom-oriented, apparently viewing the federal government along the lines of being a regulatory body and line of defense rather than the (domestic) tax collector it would later become.
One of the most telling facts revealed on Freedom to Fascism is that the entirety of federal income taxes collected...
"...(are) absorbed solely by interest on the federal debt and by federal government contributions to transfer payments. In other words, all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services that taxpayers expect from their government".
That was the conclusion of the government-appointed Grace Commission back in 1984.
The Grace Commission also pointed out at the time that basically, a significant number of eligible Americans didn't pay federal taxes, and about half of those which are collected are lost to issues within the government infrastructure. The latter, as Freedom to Fascism notes, may be officially termed as "undocumentable adjustments", which more simply means that said monies have disappeared from accounting ledgers.
To reiterate, that report was made in 1984. If you were to now google "what are federal taxes used for", you'd get answers such as 'providing for national programs' and "to finance various public services", which is in direct contrast to the Grace Commission's findings. However, (also) according to the IRS itself, "federal income taxes are used to pay interest on the national debt". The documentary proceeds to point out that the likes of education, roads and defense are not funded through federal taxes but rather those of the local, state or corporate variety.
As of this writing, the US national debt is $34 trillion - and growing. Meanwhile, the IRS collected approximately $5 trillion in taxes in 2022. So you would think that, if all of that money is being applied to the debt, then at this rate it could be paid off within a decade.
But the sad part is that "the US national debt is growing by... roughly $3.6 trillion per year". And the interest alone has now reached over $1 trillion annually, thus basically accounting for that aforementioned $5 trillion.
On surface, given the definition of "apportioned", that argument makes sense. But since all resident Americans are, in theory, responsible for the national debt, then maybe what the IRS is doing is 'apportioned', even if not in terms of civil services.
"FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE"
But patriotism, if you will, is not the reason I feel that Americans who earn their living in dollars must willingly pay federal taxes. My rationale is a lot simpler than that.
At the top of the dollar bill, you will see that it is in fact a "Federal Reserve Note". In other words, the Federal Reserve owns the US Dollar, not the person whose pocket a particular note may be in.
People like to view the money in their possession or account as being their own. It is 'my money', as we say by default. Many people are actually killed for taking 'someone else's' money.
But remember that story from the Bible, when they tried to get Jesus to stumble on one of these selfsame tax issues? His response was "who's inscription is on it"? In other words, he didn't ask who the current holder of the currency was, but rather who did it belong to in general.
When we look at American currency, the faces we are met with are those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses Grant and Benjamin Franklin. Unless you're the dictator of some country, chances are the money in your pocket doesn't have your own face on it.
Granted, none of the individuals mentioned above were members of the Federal Reserve, and their lives even predate its institution. But they were high-ranking members of the US government, i.e. the future employer of the IRS, And to reiterate, the Federal Reserves' inscriptions are found on dollars. It is their "note". So now, you know who the money actually belongs to.
And while we're on the subject of history, note that, even if there was a time when the US federal government didn't collect taxes from citizens, that doesn't mean that no one in the United States was getting 'taxed'. After all, this is the selfsame government that was concurrently waging genocidal campaigns against Native Americans, primarily in the name of seizing their land - which, by the way, is a lot more valuable than having your bank account, car or even house seized by the IRS.
The US government also advocated the enslavement of millions of Black people for centuries. That's the problem with the worldview of a lot of people, especially richer types like Americans. They don't know that karmic justice is real. Relatively speaking, Americans are wealthy, but where did that wealth come from? So I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of prominent Native Americans hold high rank within the Federal Reserve and are like 'yeah, let's get these MFers back'.
Accordingly, as the Freedom to Fascism progresses, it transitions away from tax laws to focus more on the idea of the American system becoming increasingly totalitarian. So more or less, the same things the US government used to do to other people its now doing to its own citizens.
THE COMING MARK OF THE BEAST
I know that to some people, such as patriots, the argument above may not read that straightforward. But instead of crying about who has the authority to legally print money, the questions they should be asking themselves is since when have we become so dependent on money, and where is this all headed?
A lot of people don't know that the ubiquitous dependency on money which currently defines the financial world appears to have only begun a couple of hundred years ago, even in the United States. Prior to that, people lived more directly off the land and were more self-sufficient.
Take the Third World for example. The way bank money was introduced was not as a staple of survival. Rather if you, as an average citizen, wanted highly-coveted European goods, then you had to pay in European currency, i.e. foreign bank notes. Or the colonizers placed taxes on the indigenes, which could only be paid in the colonizers' own currency, thus necessitating the locals to work for European money, i.e. bank notes.
The way I see it, overdependency on money may be more of an effect of urbanization, colonization and modernization than anything else. In other words, as people increasingly and permanently migrate from self-sufficient rural areas into interconnected cities, even their most basic necessities, such as food (and water), must be purchased using money.
It is this dependency on money, more than anything, which, in theory, has set the stage for the prophesied "mark of the Beast". As the Bible tells it, there will come a day when we, as individuals, will not be able to "buy or sell" unless we pledge allegiance to Satan - not the Federal Reserve, but Beelzebub himself. In other words, the devil is going to be in control of the currency. And that foretelling wouldn't sound as threatening if not for the fact that we have become so dependent on money to begin with. Indeed, it's virtually impossible to imagine surviving in the modern world without it.
CONCLUSION
So basically, the situation is such that if an American doesn't want to pay federal income tax, then maybe he or she shouldn't be reliant Federal Reserve notes, i.e. the US dollar, to begin with. Once they do decide to live by that currency, whether willingly or by force, then logic would dictate that they would also be subject to taxes as stipulated by the Federal Reserve.
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