Early next year students and citizens will be filling out their W-2s so Uncle Sam knows how much money to send back for their tax returns. A lot of students usually get all of their money back because attending college full time cuts into getting a decent paying job, but what about those who do not? Besides being immoral by taxing labor, the income tax – and thus the IRS – is not even legal.

The Sixteenth Amendment, which was passed in 1913 and gave the federal government the power to tax, was not ratified by enough states to pass, the documentary America, From Fascism to Freedom states. The documentary, by producer Aaron Russo, of Trading Places fame, is about how the income tax is not legal or constitutional. Along with mounds of scathing evidence the documentary unsheathes, it also features a quote by Judge James Fox of the U.S. District Court from 2003 saying if someone researches the amendment they would find “a sufficient number of states never ratified that amendment.” President Woodrow Wilson, who signed the amendment, making it part of the constitution, was quoted as saying he was “unhappy” with his decision because he “unwittingly ruined my country.”

The documentary features interviews with former IRS agents, some who have quit paying income tax themselves, and it features the trouble people have had getting the federal government to show the exact line in the tax code that reads citizens must pay a tax on their income. Sounds like it’s a conspiracy plot and a little kooky, doesn’t it?

Louisiana lawyer Tommy Cryer said he thought his friend must have went insane when he was told no one had to pay income tax. Cryer said for two years he tried to prove income tax was not voluntary, but after the two years he could not prove it and stopped filing paying taxes. When the IRS sent its Criminal Investigations Division after him, he said “show me the law that makes me liable” and he said he would file, but CID could not find a law. According to Cryer, he was writing a book about the income tax lie when the IRS took him to court in April of this year. Surprisingly, he was declared not guilty in July, but the mass media did not report on it (surprise).

The founding fathers did not want the federal government to extort citizens by making them pay direct taxes. Why has the government forced its citizens to hand over trillions of dollars they procured themselves? That answer is obvious. The machine that is our national government, or rather the cogs (politicians) in the machine, need money to pay their huge salaries and platinum life benefits of several years of public “service.” If they are doing the public such a service then why does it cost us so much? Why are they not happy with a livable or even comfortable income instead of an extravagant one?

Ted Hamilton is a senior magazine journalism major and a columnist for the

Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].