How To Evade Taxes
“Tax Defiers”, those who believe the Federal government doesn’t have the right to impose an income tax, file about 10,000 erroneous tax returns every year. In 2008 the IRS only referred 132 of these to the Justice Department for prosecution. Ergo, your odds of getting arrested for tax evasion when openly admitting it? 1:100.
A Tax Defier who didn’t beat the odds? Wesley Snipes. According to the Washington Post, he was sentenced to three years in prison for failing to file tax returns for three years. Prosecutors argue he didn’t pay taxes for six years on over $40 million. Snipes claimed he had paid his taxes through a secret government bank account. No one knows how Snipes earned $40 million dollars.
How to Protest Taxes
Thousands of protestors are descending on Lafayette Square today to ‘dump tea’ in protest of Obama’s budget, something they believe is driving America further into debt. Most are Republicans. During the Bush administration taxes were cut and two wars were waged, whose combined cost will surpass $1 trillion dollars this year. They plan to dump the tea on tarps laid out in the square and clean up afterward. Just like the Boston Tea Party.
How to Levy Taxes
The first instance of income tax in the United States came in 1861 to help pay for the Civil War. For the 44 years prior to this the United States collected no internal revenue. Instead it functioned off of tariffs and customs duties. By 1872 the federal income tax was repealed, but liquor and tobacco taxes remained.
The 16th amendment, which allows Congress to impose income taxes directly on the people (before the states were levied proportional to their population) was passed in 1913. At the time government spending as a percent of GDP was about 8%.*
In 1918, in the grips of WWI, government spending shot up to 22% and income tax paid for 1/3 of the entire war and only about 5% of the population’s income was taxed.
In 1936, the highest earning tax bracket was taxed 79%. The lowest was taxed 4%. In 1954 the maximum tax rate sat at 87% of taxable income. Reagan changed this in 1981 by bringing it down to 50% under the Economic Recovery Act. By 1986 this was brought down to 28%.
In 2009 government spending as a percent of GDP is expected to be 44%, the highest level since 1945, when it was at 50%. The current highest tax bracket is roughly 35% of taxable income.
“Tax Defiers”, those who believe the Federal government doesn’t have the right to impose an income tax, file about 10,000 erroneous tax returns every year. In 2008 the IRS only referred 132 of these to the Justice Department for prosecution. Ergo, your odds of getting arrested for tax evasion when openly admitting it? 1:100.
A Tax Defier who didn’t beat the odds? Wesley Snipes. According to the Washington Post, he was sentenced to three years in prison for failing to file tax returns for three years. Prosecutors argue he didn’t pay taxes for six years on over $40 million. Snipes claimed he had paid his taxes through a secret government bank account. No one knows how Snipes earned $40 million dollars.
How to Protest Taxes
Thousands of protestors are descending on Lafayette Square today to ‘dump tea’ in protest of Obama’s budget, something they believe is driving America further into debt. Most are Republicans. During the Bush administration taxes were cut and two wars were waged, whose combined cost will surpass $1 trillion dollars this year. They plan to dump the tea on tarps laid out in the square and clean up afterward. Just like the Boston Tea Party.
How to Levy Taxes
The first instance of income tax in the United States came in 1861 to help pay for the Civil War. For the 44 years prior to this the United States collected no internal revenue. Instead it functioned off of tariffs and customs duties. By 1872 the federal income tax was repealed, but liquor and tobacco taxes remained.
The 16th amendment, which allows Congress to impose income taxes directly on the people (before the states were levied proportional to their population) was passed in 1913. At the time government spending as a percent of GDP was about 8%.*
In 1918, in the grips of WWI, government spending shot up to 22% and income tax paid for 1/3 of the entire war and only about 5% of the population’s income was taxed.
In 1936, the highest earning tax bracket was taxed 79%. The lowest was taxed 4%. In 1954 the maximum tax rate sat at 87% of taxable income. Reagan changed this in 1981 by bringing it down to 50% under the Economic Recovery Act. By 1986 this was brought down to 28%.In 2009 government spending as a percent of GDP is expected to be 44%, the highest level since 1945, when it was at 50%. The current highest tax bracket is roughly 35% of taxable income.
How to Complain about Taxes
D.C. residents pay federal income tax, but do not have voting representation in either the House or Senate. All D.C. license plates read “Taxation without Representation” because of this.
Obama has introduced a bill to give residents a vote in the House, but the bill was stymied by Republicans who placed a rigid gun law rider on it. Understandable, considering 97% of D.C. residents voted democratic in the last Presidential election.
* According to usgovernmentspending.com, a conservative website. URL: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_20th_century_chart.html
No comments:
Post a Comment