The 16th Amendment to the Constitution

I post this to help arm you against mindless conservative arguments. I've heard conservatives time and again claim that the Constitution does not authorize the Congress to collect income tax, so it is therefore illegal.

As a resident of a very red state I can tell you that this is widely repeated and believed in RW circles. Someone shouted it on the radio, so it must be true. They don't bother to read the Constitution to verify it.

Stop this argument in its tracks by remembering the number 16. Here is the text of the 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution:



I post this because I encountered this very argument yet again last night. After posting the 16th Amendment, the other guy's comments ceased.

You might also want to brush up on The Tea Act of 1773.

They were pushing the "income tax is illegal" crap. When one was shown the Constitution and it's amendment, they would almost ignore it. Most of the people I knew that refused to pay income taxes ended up paying dearly. They lost houses, cars, trucks and personal property and did some jail time. The teabaggin' kkkluckers never heard of the 16th Amendment because they don't read that part of the Constitution.

They used to be called tax resisters.

...and is, therefore, not a valid amendment. Their reasoning is that the punctuation was different among states as they approved it. Basically, as very weak argument.

:eyes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_protester_Sixteenth_Amendment_arguments

"After an extensive year-long nationwide research project, William J. Benson discovered that the 16th Amendment was not ratified by the requisite three-fourths of the states and that nevertheless Secretary of State Philander Knox had fraudulently declared ratification.

It was a shocking revelation; it reached deep to the core of our American system of government."

http://www.thelawthatneverwas.com/

Embracing Denial has become a Republican value.

posed by taxpayers trying to use this argument to evade taxes.

It's settled law.

They can start their reading here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_protester_Sixteenth_Amendment_arguments

"Sixteenth Amendment ratification arguments have been rejected in every court case where they have been raised and have been identified as legally frivolous."

And "they" in this case includes more than just "mindless conservatives". I've seen the argument made a few times here on DU (though I can't speak to the posters' political leanings).

All we've managed to do in this country is replace royalty with the really rich: Come reign over us, Donald Trump!