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Newsletter - Edition #30 05/04/2002 Click Here to Subscribe To Our Free E-mail Newsletter
FOR THE REST OF 2002 - YOU ARE WORKING FOR YOURSELF. You'll be pleased to know that you are now working for yourself. Tax freedom day is the day that you have earned enough money in 2002 to pay your federal and state income tax burden. In Alaska, a state with low state taxes, Tax Freedom Day arrived on April 8th. We find the highest state taxes in Connecticut, where Tax Freedom Day arrives on May 14th. On average, tax freedom day was April 27th nationally. On
the average you work 80 days to pay the cost of the Imperial Federal
Government, and another 37 days to pay the cost of state and local
governments. This number does
not include the taxes that are paid by businesses and corporations and are
hidden in the cost of every single item you buy and service you use.
This tax is computed to be around 20 percent of the cost of these
goods and services.
Maybe you would like to download and print the entire report from The Tax Foundation entitled “America Celebrates Tax Freedom Day.” Click on this link: http://www.fightthebias.com/sr112.pdf
MOST
PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH THEY PAY IN TAXES. Actually,
this statement is becoming less and less true as time progresses.
One group that does know how much federal income tax they pay is
that segment of wage earners who pay nothing.
By design, this segment is growing larger every year.
I should revise this statement to read “Most people who actually
pay federal income taxes have no idea how much they pay.”
If you don’t believe it, just try this little test.
Approach a friend or co-worker whom you actually believe pays some
federal income tax and ask them how much they paid.
You will most likely get one of two responses.
For the majority of actual taxpayers, those who are receiving
refunds, the response will be “I didn’t have to pay anything!
I’m getting some back!” For
taxpayers who had to write a check today they will quote the amount of
that check as the amount of tax they paid. This
is all by design. Politicians
know that if those who actually pay federal income taxes were aware of
just how much they were paying there would be an instantaneous and serious
tax revolt. To mask the
amount of taxes these wage earners pay, the politicians have sustained the
system of withholding those taxes from paychecks.
The money is gone before the wage earner lays their hands on it.
It is as if it the wage earner never had the money to begin with
… so, what is to miss?
IN FACT, MOST PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH THEY EARN! - NOT TO MENTION HOW MUCH TAX THEY PAY. OK
.. so you have asked your co-worker how much tax they paid in 2001, and
they didn’t know. Now …
ask them how much they make! Those
few who will respond will begin their responses with the words, “I
take home ……. “ If
you wanted to be particularly obnoxious at this point – you could say
“I didn’t ask how much you took home.
I asked you how much you made.”
Then … stand by for the blank stare. This
is how well this system of withholding taxes has worked!
The majority of wage earners can’t tell you what they earned!
They are only aware of what they have “taken home.”
It’s as if they viewed their “take home” pay as their total
earnings! It's no wonder
people think they haven't paid any taxes when they receive a refund check
from the IRS! I’ll
tell you one group that DOES know how much tax they've paid.
The self-employed! The
owners of small businesses – the businesses that employ about 80 percent
of the workers in this country … they know.
These are the people who have to sit down four times a year and
write a check to the IRS for their quarterly tax payments.
You ask these people how much they paid and they’ll be able to
tell you … to the penny! By
the way --- these people make up a minority of taxpayers, but pay
the majority of the taxes. WITHHOLDING
WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A TEMPORARY MEASURE. Until
World War II taxpayers would write one check to the federal government
every year. The check would
be for the tax they owed for the previous year. There wasn't any of this
“I didn’t have to pay anything, I’m getting some back” nonsense.
People knew exactly what they paid. Then
comes World War II and the government needs cash to produce ships,
airplanes and arms. So .. how
do you speed up the cash flow from the income earners to the government?
Withholding! You get
the employer to take the tax money out of the employee’s paycheck before
the employee ever sees it.
Withholding
was sold to the American wage earners as purely a temporary measure.
Upon completion of the war things were to return to normal and the
wage earner would receive his/her entire check, just as before the war. The
war has been over for about 58 years or so, and withholding is still with
us. Along with the age of
withholding came the age of “take-home pay” and tax refunds which
brought us the “I didn’t have to pay anything, I’m getting some
back” taxpayer. WOE
BE UNTO THE EMPLOYER WHO ATTEMPTS TO FINESSE THE SYSTEM. Since
the advent of tax withholding there have been employers who have tried
various payroll gimmicks to make sure that their employees knew just how
much they were making and how much was being taken out of their paychecks.
One such gimmick was to issue the entire paycheck to the employee
in cash. The employee would
them be required to pay back to the employer the amount of tax due the
federal government, as well as the Social Security taxes.
Inevitably, when the feds found about what these employers were
trying to do they put a quick end to it.
Bottom
line – politicians know that continued taxpayer ignorance is essential
to their continued vote buying schemes. OUR
FOUNDING FATHERS SPECIFICALLY AVOIDED AN INCOME TAX. Alexander
Hamilton is largely credited with framing those portions of our
Constitution that deal with taxes and federal revenue.
Hamilton was definitely not friendly to the idea of an income tax,
preferring consumption taxes instead.
Read the following quotation from Hamilton:
"It
is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they
contain in their own nature a security against excess. If duties are too
high, they lessen the consumption; the collection is eluded; and the
product to the Treasury is not so great as when they are confined within
proper and moderate bounds. This forms a complete barrier against any
material oppression of the citizens of this class, and is itself a natural
limitation of the power of imposing them." You
see the difference between income and consumption taxes here, don’t you?
Under an income tax the only way a citizen can voluntarily reduce
his tax load is to stop producing and adding to his own wealth.
Politicians know that many people are unlikely to take this step.
Under a consumption tax you can reduce your tax load, and register
your feelings that taxes are too high, by simply reducing or changing your
consumption habits. You can
do this without halting or slowing your production of wealth.
Income taxes take almost all of the power away from the taxpayer
and vest it with politicians. Your
only weapon is to stop earning income. WE FUNCTIONED
BEAUTIFULLY WITHOUT AN INCOME TAX FOR MOST OF OUR FIRST 150 YEARS.
That’s
about how long it took Hamilton’s ideas to be replaced with the ideas
and philosophy of Karl Marx on tax matters. Karl
Marx? Did I say Karl Marx?
Wait a minute, didn’t he write The Communist Manifesto with
Frederick Engels? Yes, that's
him. He and Engles wrote this
guiding document for communism in 1847.
You
can read The Communist Manifesto online here.
It’s long, but buried in the middle you will find ten things that
need to be accomplished in an industrialized country to bring on a
communist form of government. Number
2 was “A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.”
No one can argue that this isn’t exactly what we now have in the
United States. Any income tax
that puts one-third of the burden on the top one percent of income tax
earners and 96 percent of the burden on the top 50 percent fits every
definition of "heavily progressive." It
took no time at all for this idea to catch on in the US.
The first income tax was levied in 1862 to help finance the Civil
War. A few years after the
war ended the tax was removed and the federal government went back to a
consumption based tax system. In
1895 The Supreme Court ruled an income tax to be unconstitutional.
This little constitutional problem was solved with the 16th
Amendment which was ratified in 1913.
Enter the era of Marx and Engles' income tax.
By
the way, before we leave The Communist Manifesto behind, you should know
that Number 3 on the list by Marx and Engles was “Abolition of all
rights of inheritance.” Please
note the vigilance with which Democrats fight against the elimination of
the death tax.
Oh
.. and you should also pay attention to Number 10.
Here you find “Free education for all children in public
schools.” You do know why
this was an essential step for the formation of a communist state, don’t
you? These aren’t
“public” schools. They’re
government schools. More
accurately, they’re government indoctrination centers.
The little children needed to be indoctrinated into the miracle of
communism. I’ll
bet fifty dollars that today in government schools across the nation,
teachers are praising our income tax system as a marvelous means to
redistribute income from those who earn it (from each according to their
ability) to those who are hungry and homeless (to each according to their
needs.) HOW
DID WE MANAGE WITHOUT AN INCOME TAX FOR MOST OF THOSE 150 YEARS? It's
simple. This was a time when
our government was generally operating within its constitutional mandate.
Now
just what constitutional mandate would that be?
The one contained in the 10th Amendment to the
Constitution --- it reads The
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people. If
you want to know just what specific powers were delegated to the federal
government, look at Section 8 of the Constitution.
Click here
if you haven’t read it in a while. Remember
what Hamilton said. A
consumption tax is a limitation on the government’s ability to grow.
Once the consumption tax, which was essentially voluntary, was gone
… once it was replaced with an involuntary income tax … the brakes
were off. Today we have a
federal government that grows with the passage of every single year … a
government that consumes almost 25 percent of all goods and services
produced in the United States. REMEMBER
… ALL TAXES ARE ESSENTIALLY COLLECTED AT THE POINT OF A GUN. When
considering the operation of government and the antics of politicians, do
not ever forget that our government has one unique asset that we do not.
Government
can use deadly force to accomplish its goals.
You cannot. If
you want to buy something, and it doesn’t fit within your budget, you
will have to either borrow the funds or do something to earn some extra
money. If the politicians to
buy something (votes, for instance) they have the power to seize the money
from you, with our without your consent. Do
you think this “point of a gun” comment is a little strong?
Yeah … its strong alright, but its also accurate.
If you chose not to pay your taxes the government will levy on your
property. The next step will
be for the government to come seize your property in order to sell it.
If you chose to protect your property, to prevent its seizure by
government, the guns come out. It’s
that simple. THE DIFFERENT
WAYS TO ACQUIRE WEALTH.
You
can get out there and earn it. If
you do, you are very likely to vote Republican or Libertarian. If
you are government you don’t earn wealth.
You seize it. If you are a Democratic voter you wait for the government to take that wealth it has seized from the person who earned it, and transfer it to you. Bottom
line … Achievers know that income is earned.
Non-achieving leftists think that income is distributed. SOON
A MINORITY OF WAGE EARNERS WILL PAY ALL OF THE FEDERAL INCOME TAXES. What
is the most certain way, short of using guns, to seize and maintain
political power? Easy. You
take money from people who’s votes you do not need and give that money
to the people who’s votes you do need.
To rephrase … you take money from those who are unlikely to vote
for you, and give that money to those who are likely to vote for you.
Big
government leftists (Democrats) have been working this game for decades
--- and they are nearing complete success.
The latest figures we have are for 1999, but those figures tell the
tale. In 1999:
The
shift increases every year. Every
time the IRS releases a new set of tax statistics you see that more and
more of the burden for the payment of federal income tax is lifted from
the majority of wage earners and shifted to the minority of wage earners
who make the big bucks. It
doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know where this is taking us ---
it’s taking us to a tax tyranny supported by the votes of non-taxpayers. Now … for those of you who do not believe what I am saying (I would rather you doubt me and research this for yourself then take what I or anyone else says without question) here’s a link so you can study these numbers for yourself. http://www.taxfoundation.org/prtopincometable.html TAXES ARE COMPLICATED. The tax code contains tens of thousands of pages of rules, law and regulations that no person is capable of understanding. If you call the IRS for help with filing your return, you may receive a incorrect answer. This wrong answer can end up costing you big money. Remember --- you are responsible for wrong answers. The IRS is not. When your grandparents filled out their income tax returns they had two pages of directions to go by. When you fill yours out you have 122 pages of instructions to follow. Filling out a tax return is now so complicated that most people have to hire someone to do it. You might as well consider the money that you pay to your tax preparer as more income taxes. Now ... just what is the reason why taxes are so complicated? It's because politicians use the tax code to hand out favors to people they like, to punish people they don't like, and to maneuver people who vote for them into lower tax brackets while maneuvering people who won't vote for them into higher tax brackets. In addition, politicians also use the tax code to encourage behavior they deem to be good and to discourage behavior they deem to be bad. Nice system eh? Feel
better now? REMEMBER
… You’ve all heard, I’m sure, that you get more of the
behavior you reward, and less of the behavior you punish.
So, why punish achievement and reward the opposite?
Because those who desire big government fear the tasks required to
achieve and embrace failure.
There
are two methods, or means, and only two, whereby man's needs and desires
can be satisfied. One is the production and exchange of wealth; this is
the economic means. The other is the uncompensated appropriation of
wealth produced by others; this is the political means. Taxes
are not levied for the benefit of the taxed. There
is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want
merely because you think it would be good for him.
Neil Boortz is a syndicated talk show host based in Atlanta Georgia. You can visit his website at http://www.boortz.com. Edited by James Bradley |
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