In 1918, the 16th amendment to the US Constitution was declared ratified. Many people think that this amendment gave the US congress a new taxing power. No, it did not. The USSC (US Supreme court) said in a still standing ruling that the 16th did not create any new powers of taxation. Thus, all it did was settle a legal argument. Congress has always had the power to tax incomes, - as an EXCISE tax. This means it does not require apportionment.
Since that time there have been hundreds of tax cases. In fact it got so bad, the government created a new department within the Justice system called Tax Court, to hear all of the cases. If the tax court failed, the people could take their case to the USSC.
Tax court is where you go to argue the amount due, not the underlying liability, or issues of the law itself. This court has limited jurisdiction.
The biggest problem we have to day, is not the law itself. It is written for the most part, very clearly. The problem we have is with the UST, (US Treasury department) and its subdivision the IRS (Internal revenue service).
Congress created the office of Internal Revenue Commissioner. Congress did not create the IRS. No one seems to know who did, but many agree that a group within the UST became known as the IRS some time around 1945.
Today there is little if any oversight imposed on the UST and its subdivision the IRS. Most recently in 2014 and 2015, the US congress has tried to hold the IRCom (Internal revenue commissioner) John Koskinen accountable to the laws of the country, claiming he obstructed a congressional investigation and perjered himself to that committee. The congress also tried to hold IRS administrative agent Louis Learner accountable to the law, and failed to do so.
If the US congress cannot hold employees of the US government and the UST accountable to the law, who can?
In 1989, US Senator Roth held IRS hearings for a full week. These hearings were aired on CSPAN, What was said at these hearings should have caused an armed uprising. It did not. But what was said was VERY important.
3 things came out of these hearings.
1. The UST IRS does not like people looking closely at what they do.
2. The UST IRS does not want nor will tolerate a Historian, like other departments have.
3. The UST IRS does what it wants, to whom it wants, because it can. (Because they are never held accountable to any one for anything.)
This was true then, and still is to this day. President Ronald Reagan said, that this country was 20 years over due for a tax revolt. He served as president from 1980 to 1988. And here we are 3 decades later and we are STILL over due.
Congress does nothing. 8 years of the democrats illegal acting as if he were a president, has resulted in a lot of damage to the country, and our finances are in ruin. We are very very close to total bankruptcy. But there is still a chance to fix things. Still a slim chance of hope.
There is one way to hold the UST accountable to the law and to congress. Something they have fought for years.
An act that was created to keep the cost of government down. It is called the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) and is administered by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
The UST is one of 2 government entities not subject to this law. We need to remove the exemption for the UST IRS from this law, and subject the IRS to the PRA so that the OMB can impose oversight. Until we do this, the IRS and the UST will continue to be held unaccountable. And taxpayers and tax payers will both continue to be abused by the IRS and suffer its poor administration.
