Liberty For All

by J. Michael Bragg

“In general the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.”

- Voltaire

When my good friend and colleague Lee Wrights and I began the project that would eventually become Liberty For All, the number one gripe I had about government was the issue of taxation. Simply put - I DESPISE paying them. Now I know I am not alone in this hatred, as I am sure many of you likewise abhor this voracious system of revenue embezzlement. Yes, I did say embezzlement! In fact, the Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines the word as: “to appropriate (as property entrusted to one’s care) fraudulently to one’s own use.” Sounds like government to me! But in one respect M-W missed the mark in definition. Our Politicians do not see the money that they constrain from us “as property entrusted to one’s care.” They see the fruits of our labor as a disposable commodity-an endless blank check that they did not have to earn; that can be used to secure their entrenchment in places of authority; and, enslave those upon whom they depend for their power.

From Federal (including the mother of all scams dubbed Social-ist In-Security), State and Local, Municipal or County taxes, to sales tax, gas tax, cigarette tax and everything else you can imagine, taxes simply eat away not only at our Liberty, but also destroy the very fabric of our lives. In my opinion, there is not another intrusion that affects us to the extent that taxes do.

Our government has waged “wars” on other people, drugs, terrorism, poverty, illiteracy, and a throng of other pet “causes” induced and directed only by the political winds of the moment or the need to fix a problem they themselves created. They have dropped bombs on innocent civilians; lied and committed perjury to cover up their malevolent deeds; and, placed the bill for their misconduct at our feet.  Property has been seized without due process, lives have been ruined and lost-all due to their incessant yearning to grasp more and more power. Millions of non-violent “offenders” are jailed for no other reason than “we say so.” Yet, with the exception of the loss of life, all these examples of government gone very bad pale in comparison to the damage done by taxation.

Simply put, the scourge of taxation destroys our ability to live independently from government intrusion into our lives. The bottom line is that without this power to fund their misguided deeds our government loses the ability to do about anything. It is the sole source of their power over us. As the old saying goes, “follow the money.”

Chris Edwards, Director of Fiscal Policy Studies at the Cato Institute informs us in his piece “Top Ten Civil Liberties Abuses of the Income Tax” of some of the more intrusive aspects of our current system. They include:

Lack of Financial Privacy. The broad-based income tax necessitates a large invasion of financial privacy that a low-rate consumption-based tax could avoid. The IRS regularly gains access to a myriad of personal records, such as mortgage records, credit card data, phone records, banking and investment records, real property transaction data, and personal correspondence. This broad IRS authority to obtain records without court supervision has been referred to by the Supreme Court as “a power of inquisition.”

Denial of Due Process. The Fifth Amendment right to due process is ignored in many respects by the federal income tax regime. Due process requires that government provide accused citizens a clear notice of a claim against them and allow the accused a hearing before executing enforcement action. But the IRS engages in many summary judgments, and enforces them prior to any judicial determinations. Moreover, the very complexity and ambiguity of the income tax seems to violate due process. In 1926, the Supreme Court noted that a statute that is “so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application, violates that first essential of due process of law.”

Shifting of the Burden of Proof. For non-criminal tax cases — the vast majority of cases — the tax code reverses the centuries-old common law principle that the burden of proof rests with the accuser. Except in some narrow circumstances, the IRS does not have to prove the correctness of its determinations. When the IRS makes erroneous assessments, as it often does, citizens carry the burden to prove that they are wrong. Efforts to shift the burden of proof to the IRS in the 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act did not accomplish that goal. In addition, the new rules do not apply to the 97 percent of IRS actions that are deemed administrative in nature.

No Trial by Jury in Tax Court. Despite Sixth and Seventh Amendment guarantees of trial by jury, the federal tax system carefully sidesteps such protections. To contest an IRS tax calculation prior to assessment, one must file a petition in the U.S. Tax Court. But since this is an administrative court, not an Article III court, no jury trial is required. To obtain a jury trial and related rights for civil tax cases, one must file suit in a U.S. District Court. But before that can happen, the alleged tax, penalties, and interest must be paid in full. And if the citizen wins, there is a burdensome route to retrieving the disputed money. For most people, those rules effectively eliminate the right to trial by jury in tax cases.

Unreasonable Searches and Seizures. In most situations, the Fourth Amendment guarantees that, before the government can search private property and seize records, it must demonstrate to a court that there is “probable cause” to believe that lawless conduct exists. However, the IRS’s summons authority under tax code section 7602 allows it to obtain records of every description from any person without showing probable cause and without a court order. There has also been an explosion in information reporting required by the IRS and a big expansion in its computer searching for personal records. Recently, the IRS won the power to access financial data on Visa cards issued by foreign banks. Many examples of abusive IRS searches and seizures were revealed in U.S. Senate hearings in 1997.

Forced Self-Incrimination. The requirement to file tax returns sworn to under penalty of perjury operates to invalidate the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. Citizens face a legal dilemma. On the one hand, refusing to file a return would expose a citizen to prosecution for failure to file. On the other hand, disclosing information sought in tax returns constitutes a waiver of Fifth Amendment protections. The IRS can and does release that information to federal, state, and local agencies for both tax and non-tax law enforcement purposes.

Of course, the list does not end here, as this is just the tip of the iceberg that threatens to sink our ship of Liberty. If we are ever to regain a hold on our lives and escape the power of oppressive government over us, then this, in my opinion, is the number one issue we have to face. All others are based on this one issue because without the ability to fund their operations, they cannot exercise their power over us.

Originally published in Liberty For All April 8, 2007.