Not enough Clear, accurate, reliable information available to act properly.

After being part of the tax protester and tax honesty movement for the last 25+ years, I have seen a lot happen. I have witnessed many friends try to take on the beast and be defeated, despite their best efforts. When the courts system becomes an equal adversary, assisting the prosecution who is representing the Treasury department whom hides the IRS from scrutiny, it is all but impossible for a citizen to prevail in court.

The current "policy" of this government is to shift the burdent of proof on the American citizen. The IRS claims that if it had the burden of proof, it could not do its job. This sounds silly to me at best, and is a lame excuse for avoiding its duty.

Where does a citizen turn to, to obtain VALID, correct, and accurate information?
The courts give us a few hints:

"We sympathize with the taxpayer who in fact relies upon what he accepts as an
authoritative interpretation of the laws and of the Treasury publications. But
nonetheless it is for the Congress and the courts and not the Treasury to declare
the law applicable to a given situation." (Carpenter v. United States, 495 F.2d 175)

"It is hornbook law that informal publications all the way up to revenue rulings are
simply guides to taxpayers, and a taxpayer relies on them at his peril." (Catipillar
Tractor Co. v. United States, 589 F-2d 1040)

The procedures in the Internal Revenue Manual do not have the force of law, so
neither the IRS nor the individual is legally bound to follow them [paraphrased].
(First Federal Savings and Loan Ass'n of Pittsburgh, WD Pa., F.Supp. 101)

In other words, the IRS publications are worthless, and cannot be relied upon.
Some court cases can, Such as some Tax Court cases, and most US district cases, unless they have been sent to the US supreme court, of which their decisions take precidence over all others.

The avarage citizen relies on the IRS giving acurate information, but as stated above, that information may not be correct.

One must look to the Published law. The Federal Register. Most Americans don't have a clue as to how to acccess these publications.

If one goes to the public library and looks in the legal section, you might find copies of the nations laws. There, in title 26, one finds the Internal Revenue Code.

Upon reading chapter 1, one finds congress imposed a tax, but continual reading shows congress did not write a liablity statute. Continuing reading you would find other taxes imposed, in other chapters, many of which do in fact, contain a liablity section. But there is none for chapter 1, Income tax. Why?

Upon further reading of the IRC, you will come across section 61A. Gross income defined. Notice Income itself, is not. Gross income, Adjusted Gross income, taxable income, ordinary income, and unordinary income are all defined by law, but these are types of income, not the defintion of income itself.

If a citizen is trying to find out what income is, and he cannot find it within the context of the written law, how can he be expected to follow a law that is vague at best?

Unable to determine if the citizen has income, he gives up and decides he has none.

Then the IRS uses its "unreliable" publications to create a legal presumption of liablity, via the work sector. That is the W4 form, and will be discussed in another posting.


If a citizen can read the Internal revenue code, and find taxes imposed, with proper liablity sections for taxes on Distilled Spirits, on rubber products, on tires, on automobiles, on petrolum products, why isn't there a clear liablity statute for the income taxes imposed by congress, in chapters 1 and 2?

The citizen is left in a state where there is not enough accurate information for him or her to determine if he or she has income, and with out the ability to make a proper determination of that, if he or she has taxable income, and thus would be required give service according to the law. In this case it would mean filing a 1040 tax return.