The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: happyg on January 18, 2014, 03:48:05 pm
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By Alan Joel
As we begin tax season, here’s something to ponder.
In 1913, the 16th Amendment was ratified which granted Congress the ability to levy a personal income tax. Below is a scan of the tax form from 100 years ago
That is the first page of the 1913 1040. It is FOUR pages in its entirety — 3 pages of calculations and 1 page of instructions. The rest of the pages are at the end.
The income tax for that year was a 1% tax on net income greater than $3,000. It also included a 6% surtax on incomes of more than $500,000.
There are some charming provisions on here, such as how farmers can calulate income on wool and hides of slaughtered animals, or how to deal with “losses occurred during shipwreck”.
What this document shows, however, is that it took merely 100 years to go from 4 pages to 1000s of pages just for Americans to calculate their tax burdens and tax compliance to the government.
There is something incredibly wrong with that. The 1913 tax form is a good argument for the need for comprehensive tax reform.
(http://canadafreepress.com/images/uploads/joel011814-1.jpg)
Three more images at link: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/60541 (http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/60541)
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I am going to plead ignorance here.
Why it your tax so complex? My entire tax statement is a single sided A5 piece of paper (about the size of the page of a hardback novel).
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I am going to plead ignorance here.
Why it your tax so complex? My entire tax statement is a single sided A5 piece of paper (about the size of the page of a hardback novel).
Parasites who make a living off a complicated tax code. Politicians who reward/penalize taxpayers.
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Precisely. Power and control. The tax code is used to influence behavior; reward activity bureaucrats like and punish actions they don't. It's really the only mechanism of mass coercion the state has. Taxes, fines, and penalties. Remove that and pretty soon all you're left with is freedom and liberty. We can't have that, now. Can we?
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OUR Marxist tax code is not about revenue collection nearly as much as it is about social engineering.
You can read all about it at the link below but keep in mind that the article was written during WWII! Things are VERY much worse now!
http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/RUMLTAXES.html (http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/RUMLTAXES.html)
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My income taxes are more complicated now that I'm retired (with no "income" other than a pension) than they were when I was _working_ ...
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It's not the length of the tax form (1040 and its iterations) that matters here but the numbers of pages of laws and regulations. When the law is unnecessarily complex, it's easier to create lawbreakers.
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It's not the length of the tax form (1040 and its iterations) that matters here but the numbers of pages of laws and regulations. When the law is unnecessarily complex, it's easier to create lawbreakers.
"... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one MAKES them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. ......just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted -- and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
- p.411,
Ayn Rand, ATLAS SHRUGGED, Signet Books, NY, 1957
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Sadly, my friend - such a time is already upon us.
Did a quick think of this morning - usual Sunday stuff. Got up, washed and dressed myself and the baby, we ate breakfast with some of the grandkids helping out with both the cooking and the eating, went to Mass, stopped on the way back to grab the Sunday paper and a couple packs of cigarettes. Played in the little park for a bit,chatted to a couple neighbors, home and got lunch out of the oven.
Sounds normal. Yet in that normal morning I broke at least 6 laws and several dozen regulations.
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"... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one MAKES them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. ......just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted -- and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
- p.411,
Ayn Rand, ATLAS SHRUGGED, Signet Books, NY, 1957
Yet how many dismiss her because of her atheism and dalliances.
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Yet how many dismiss her because of her atheism and dalliances.
I don't know. None of my Christian conservative friends have "dismissed her" for those reasons. They like her writings.