Restoring the Lost Republic (6 PART SERIES)

1 - Money, Currency, Debt, & Credit Backgrounder
2 - The Legitimacy of the Federal Government in Washington D.C.
3 - Department of the Treasury & The Federal Reserve (The Fed)
4 - The 16th Amendment and the IRS (Internal Revenue Service)
5 - 3-POINT ACTION PLAN
6 - Conclusion & Quotes from U.S. Presidents

In Part 1 – Money, Currency, Debt, & Credit Backgrounder of this 6-part series, we explored the difference between money, currency, debt, and credit.

In Part 2 – The Legitimacy of the Federal Government in Washington D.C. we looked at some historical facts regarding the federal government and learned more about the nation's capital - Washington D.C. We also posed many questions including whether Washington D.C. and the United States itself are corporations.

In Part 3 – Department of the Treasury & The Federal Reserve we examined who has the legal authority to issue money in the United States focusing on Congress, the US Department of Treasury, and the US Federal Reserve.

In Part 4 - The 16th Amendment and the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) we will consider whether the income tax is legal by examining the 16th Amendment and ask if the IRS is a lawful agency or not. Moreover, we will question where the funds the IRS collects actually end up.

Part 4 – The 16th Amendment and the IRS (Internal Revenue Service)

Those are probably the three most dreaded letters in the English alphabet – IRS. Income taxes come to mind immediately when you hear about the IRS. Some basic questions: Is income tax constitutional? Is there a legal basis for the taxation of individuals’ incomes? Is it legal for the IRS to collect income taxes from the wages of American workers?

Historical Background regarding income tax

Let’s begin with some historical background knowledge. Generally speaking, there is no clear mention in the original Constitution regarding taxes on individuals’ incomes per se. But there are three areas of interest:

Article I, Section 2, Clause 366 of the Constitution states:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union,…

Article I, Section 8, Clause 167 of the Constitution states:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

Article I, Section 9, Clause 468 of the Constitution states:

No Capitation, or other direct Tax, shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

The Revenue Act of 1861 (69,70) was the first federal statute that proposed a federal income tax; it was motivated by the need to help fund the American Civil War. It was to be a temporary tax and clearly specified that it was to be terminated in 1866 according to records from the 37th Congress (71) as stated hereunder:

“SEC. 92. And be it further enacted, That the duties on incomes herein imposed shall be due and payable on or before the thirtieth day of June, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and in each year thereafter until and including the year eighteen hundred and sixty-six and no longer;…”

Then in 1894 Congress enacted The Revenue Act or Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894 (72) to impose a flat rate federal income tax. But in 1895 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down this income tax provision, as confirmed in the case Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (73) Basically, the court found that the income tax was a direct tax which could only be imposed if the tax was “apportioned” according to the population of each state; and since this tax was not apportioned, it was thus found unconstitutional (74).

The 16th Amendment

The 16th Amendment to the Constitution (note: some sources state it was proposed on July 12, 1909 while the actual document reads March 15, 1909) was to allow Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states. The amendment reads as follows (75,76):

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

On February 25, 1913, Secretary of State Philander C. Knox certified that this amendment had become a part of the Constitution. (77) However, there are two issues regarding the validity of the 16th Amendment. The first one is that the amendment was not adequately ratified (78) and the second one is that by prior case precedent, it was deemed unconstitutional; there have been many court cases supporting such arguments (79,80,81,82,83). U.S. District Court Judge James C. Fox even stated in 2003:

“If you…examined [The 16th Amendment] carefully, you would find that a sufficient number of states never ratified that amendment.”(84) Tax Attorney Peter Gibbons stated: “Congress tried to enact an income tax in 1894, the Supreme Court said that was unconstitutional. They tried again in 1913, the 16th Amendment conferred no new power of taxation.” (85,86)

Whether the 16th Amendment really is in full force or not is up to much debate. The fact, nevertheless, is that many have been able to demonstrate that it has never been fully ratified nor was it ever constitutional. More legal examples will be provided in the next section (IRS).

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

As noted in the section immediately above this one, The Revenue Act of 1861 was created and later repealed. But, confusingly, another act entitled The Revenue Act of 1862 (87) was also created and signed into law by President Lincoln. The difference here is that this latter act established a Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

As stated on the IRS web page entitled ‘Brief History of IRS’, this income tax was repealed 10 years later (88); it is also mentioned on this website:

“Congress revived the income tax in 1894, but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional the following year.”

So, if the IRS itself states that the Supreme Court ruled the income tax as unconstitutional, then on what legal basis does it entitle itself to collect such taxes?

If we return to the IRS’s website in an attempt to locate the answer to this important question, we can only find the following text under ‘The Agency, its Mission and Statutory Authority’ (89):

Statutory Authority
The IRS is organized to carry out the responsibilities of the secretary of the Treasury under section 7801 of the Internal Revenue Code. The secretary has full authority to administer and enforce the internal revenue laws and has the power to create an agency to enforce these laws. The IRS was created based on this legislative grant.

Section 7803 of the Internal Revenue Code provides for the appointment of a commissioner of Internal Revenue to administer and supervise the execution and application of the internal revenue laws.

Here above, there are red two flags to consider. Firstly, they mention that the IRS is “organized to carry out the responsibilities of the secretary of the Treasury under section 7801 of the Internal Revenue Code”; yet if you read the code (7801 – ‘Authority of Department of the Treasury’) (90), it appears that only the ‘Secretary of the Treasury’ has such authority. Also notice the lowercase “s” for the word “secretary” as well as the absence of “United States” in front of this same word – which could easily (and legally) imply a secretary from the IRS entity rather than the one from the ‘United States Department of the Treasury’.

Secondly, it is mentioned that secretary has “…full authority to administer and enforce the internal revenue laws…” yet it doesn’t specifically state which laws. The only law or code it refers to is the ‘Internal Revenue Code’ (which can be viewed from the Cornell University Law School’s Legal Information Institute website) (91). Now, isn’t it strange that there isn’t any mention in this section about the ‘Revenue Act of 1913 (92) (a.k.a., ‘The Tariff Act of October 3, 1913’) which is supposed to be the legal basis under which a national income tax can be levied (purportedly through authority of the 16th Amendment) on individuals?

Something even more strange is the simple fact that it is extremely difficult to locate the full text of the ‘Revenue Act of 1913’ on the internet. The only website I could find which contains the full text (93) of the act is one that is archived at https://archive.org/ – a website that takes backup snapshots of websites around the web at different time intervals. You would think that such an important act would be easily accessible online – even linked or referenced to from Wikipedia – but it is not.

The only legal basis the IRS seems to claim their authority upon is the ‘Internal Revenue Code’ which comes from the ‘United States Code’. And as discussed earlier in this paper, it is debatable whether the ‘United States Code’ itself does indeed fall under the supreme law of the Constitution For the United States of America.

Even when you examine the text of the ‘Internal Revenue Code (in ‘Subtitle A – Income Taxes’ (94) and all its Chapters), you will not find any mention that individuals are actually required to pay income taxes (try to search and find keywords such as ‘required’, ‘obligated’, ‘liable’, and so on). And, more importantly, neither will you find any mention of any law under which they state that you are required to pay income tax. Put simply, the text of the code tells you what you should pay (in terms of amounts and so on) but nowhere does it say that you are obligated to pay.

Moreover, many have argued that paying Income Tax to the IRS is a voluntary, not obligatory, endeavor. This has been mentioned and documented in several court cases (95,96). And even U.S. Congressmen Xavier Becerra and Harry Reid have both stated that it’s a voluntary tax system (97); you can watch the video of Harry Reid confirming this (98).

After conducting extensive research, former IRS agents Sherry Jackson (99) and Joseph Banister (100,101,102) have discovered that indeed there is no law that exists for individuals to pay income tax. They both left the IRS and have since decided to inform the public despite being bullied and intimated for speaking out. Both have been interviewed by Alex Jones on his TV show called Infowars (103,104,105,106,107). Joseph Banister also appeared alongside U.S. Representative Ron Paul on CNBC in 2007 discussing the matter (108).

Many individuals have challenged the IRS on this argument that income taxes are voluntary only to be met with ensuing aggressive tactics from the agency. Such tactics are described in great detail in the article entitled ‘IRS: The Biggest Scam in History’ by Sheriff Richard Mack (109,110,111). You can also watch and listen to a video which details all of Mack’s points and arguments (112). Mack is a member of ‘Oath Keepers’ (113) which advocates that its members disobey any orders that they are given if they believe they violate the Constitution of the United States.

Is the IRS a lawful agency of the United States Government?

Assessing whether the IRS itself is a lawful government agency is something that must also be considered. Firstly, if we refer to the relevant section of the U.S. Code (Title 31 – MONEY AND FINANCE) under Chapter 3 – DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY - Subchapter I – ORGANIZATION (114) we can easily notice that there is no mention of the ‘Internal Revenue Service’ that falls under the Department of the Treasury (as it does for the ‘United States Mint’ for instance).

There are no existing records that show that the IRS was created by an act from Congress.

On the IRS’s website (Brief History of IRS) it is mentioned that in the 1950’s “The Bureau of Internal Revenue name was changed to the Internal Revenue Service”. But the only ‘Bureau of Internal Revenue’ that was formed is that from the country of the Philippines (115) in 1904 shortly after its first civil government was created under U.S. President William H. Taft (who was the General-Governor of the Philippines, in 1902).

The name change from the ‘Bureau of Internal Revenue’ to the ‘Internal Revenue Service’ (IRS) appears to have been done in 1953 by United States Secretary of the Treasury George M. Humphrey; yet no congressional or presidential authorization for this change appears anywhere and it would appear that he had exercised his authority as a trustee of the Internal Revenue Bureau of Puerto Rico (116,117,118).

In his 1954 Annual Report (119), Humphrey does make reference to “Puerto Rico trust fund collections”. And if you examine the U.S. Code (Title 31 – MONEY AND FINANCE – 1321 - Trust funds) there is mention of a “Puerto Rico special fund (Internal Revenue)” (item 62) (120).

Having not been created by an Act of Congress and not being a legitimate government agency, it would certainly appear that the IRS is not legally allowed to collect taxes from citizens of each state, but perhaps only from those from Puerto Rico (and possibly from residents and employees of the Federal Government in Washington, D.C.).

Where do the tax revenues the IRS collects go?

The next fundamental question one should ask about the IRS is: Where does the tax money it collects from individuals go to? There are countless websites that provide data regarding this. Most will list the obvious such as spending for the military and defense, Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid, interest on the debt, and so on (121).

According to ‘The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ – a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization – sources of federal tax revenue for 2014 indicate that 46% of revenue comes from Income Tax, 34% from Payroll Tax, 11% from Corporate Income Tax, and 9% from other taxes (122). This website also indicates that the interest on the debt amounts to $229 billion, or about 7 percent of the 2014 budget.

But if you look at the TreasuryDirect.gov website, the figure stated for 2014 exceeds $430 billion (123) which would put the figure for interest on the debt closer to 12% of the entire budget. Needless to say this amount is staggering and will continue to grow sharply and exponentially in the years to come.

But how exactly do the funds collected from the income tax actually make it into the programs described above? This question is very difficult to answer, as the mechanics through which funds are disbursed and allocated each and every year are extremely difficult to trace and follow.

An attempt at this unenviable task was undertaken back in 1980’s under the Reagan administration. In 1982, an investigation called ‘The Grace Commission’ was requested by President Ronald Reagan to uncover the amount of waste and inefficiency in the US Federal government (124,125). The Grace Commission report found that:

“… 100 percent of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the federal debt and by federal government contributions to transfer payments. In other words, all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services [that] taxpayers expect from their government.”

In other words, all the revenue collected from income tax goes to pay the interest on the debt and not a cent goes to the aforementioned services.

From these findings, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the IRS is a collection agency for the Federal Reserve and its greedy banks.

Is it mere coincidence that both the Federal Reserve and the ‘Revenue Act of 1913’ (which created the income tax under the alleged 16th Amendment) were created in the same year?

One must also keep in mind that when the Fed charges these huge amounts of interest (as stated above) to the U.S. Government, a significant portion is also used for the 6% dividend they pay its member banks each and every year.

This is the biggest and most deceitful scam ever deployed on a country and its citizens by greedy banksters and complicitly corrupt politicians.

[END OF PART 4]

Stay tuned for Part 5 - 3-POINT ACTION PLAN where we will look at what can actually be done in practical terms to help remedy these ills that have been created by all these nefarious and treasonous parties over the last century.

Notes:

n.b.: some of the YouTube videos that were orginally available when this document was written seem to now be gone; if anyone has the new links please let me know in the comments section along with the footnote number - thanks!

(69) The Revenue Act of 1861, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1861
(70) Libray of Congress – History of the US Income Tax (repeal of The Revenue Act of 1861), http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/hottopic/irs_history.html
(71) 37th Congress. Sess. II. Ch. 119. P 474 (1862), http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=012/llsl012.db&recNum=505
(72) The Revenue Act or Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894 via Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson%E2%80%93Gorman_Tariff_Act
(73) Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (Legal Case) via Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollock_v.Farmers%27_Loan%26_Trust_Co.
(74) Uncertainties of the Income Tax, http://www.constitution.org/uslaw/uncertain.htm
(75) U.S. Constitution Online - U.S. Constitution - Amendment 16, http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am16.html
(76) The Sixteenth Amendment in the National Archives,
(77) 16th Amendment (Footnote 8), http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendments.html#f8
(78) US Supreme Court’s 1894 Decision That Income Tax Is Unconstitutional Never Nullified?, https://debbyreagan.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/us-supreme-courts-1894-decision-that-income-tax-is-unconstitutional-never-nullified/
(79) The TRUTH About the 16TH AMENDMENT (Chapter 5), http://usa-the-republic.com/revenue/true_history/Chap5.html
(80) Legal UCC - Income Tax Unconstitutional, http://www.legalucc.com/unconstitutional_income_taxes.html
(81) Constitution Society – Uncertainties of the Income Tax by Larry Becraft, attorney, http://www.constitution.org/uslaw/uncertain.htm
(82) Supreme Law Firm – 31 Questions and Answers about the Internal Revenue Service by Paul Andrew Mitchell, http://www.supremelaw.org/sls/31answers.htm
(83) The Price of Liberty – The 16th Amendment is not the Source of the Federal Income Tax by Robert Greenslade, http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/04/04/16/greenslade.htm
(84) AMERICA — From Freedom To Fascism (Documentary Video),

(85) Peter Gibbons (YouTube video):

(86) Peter Gibbons Tax Attorney, website: http://www.besttaxattorneylawyer.com/peter-gibbons-tax-attorney/
(87) Revenue Act of 1862 (via Wikipedia), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1862
(88) IRS – Brief History of IRS, http://www.irs.gov/uac/Brief-History-of-IRS
(89) IRS – The Agency, its Mission and Statutory Authority, http://www.irs.gov/uac/The-Agency,-its-Mission-and-Statutory-Authority
(90) Internal Revenue Code – Authority of Department of the Treasury (via Cornell Law), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7801
(91) Internal Revenue Code (via Cornell Law), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26
(92) Revenue Act of 1913 (via Wikipedia), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1913
(93) Full text of the ‘Revenue Act of 1913’ (a.k.a., ‘The Tariff Act of October 3, 1913’), http://archive.org/stream/cu31924062059419/cu31924062059419_djvu.txt
(94) Internal Revenue Code – Subtitle A - Income Taxes (via Cornell Law), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/subtitle-A
(95) THE BEST KEPT SECRETS OF THE IRS by Frederick Mann, http://www.mind-trek.com/practicl/tl16a.htm
(96) PayNoIncomeTax.com (Court Cases), http://www.paynoincometax.com/
(97) End the Lie – Independent News – In America, taxes are voluntary but if you choose to not pay, you’ll be forced to ‘voluntarily’ comply (article), http://endthelie.com/2013/05/20/in-america-taxes-are-voluntary-but-if-you-choose-to-not-pay-youll-be-forced-to-voluntarily-comply/
(98) Paying income tax in America is Voluntary – Harry Reid reference (YouTube Video),

(99) Ex IRS agent (Sherry Jackson) tells it like it is (YouTube video),

(100) Barnes Law – Joseph Banister – How Joe Banister Was Acquitted on All Charges, http://www.barneslawllp.com/joe-banister/
(101) Freedom Above Fortune – Joseph Banister, http://www.freedomabovefortune.com/
(102) Agent for Truth – Joseph Banister, http://www.agentfortruth.com/
(103) Alex Jones – Infowars – Former IRS Agents Tell All (interview with Sherry Jackson),

(104) Alex Jones – Infowars – Tuesday (4-3-12) - IRS Whistleblower Joe Banister,

(105) Alex Jones – Infowars – IRS Insider Joe Banister Exposes Federal Reserve Coup and IRS Fraud (interview with Joseph Banister),

(106) Alex Jones – Infowars – December 19, 2013 (Full Show): Joe Banister 2,

(107) Alex Jones – Infowars – Why The Income Tax is Totally Illegal,

(108) CNBC interview with Joseph Banister and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (2007, via YouTube),

(109) Sheriff Mack: 'The Biggest Scam in History', http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/government/banking_and_taxation_irs_and_insurance/social_security/news.php?q=1304698536
(110) IRS: The Biggest Scam in History by Sheriff Richard Mack, FourWinds10.com (via archive.org), https://web.archive.org/web/20110914172531/http://polymontana.com/2011/05/07/irs-the-biggest-scam-in-history/
(111) SHERIFFMACK.COM, http://www.sheriffmack.com/
(112) End the Fed - Abolish the IRS (Youtube video),

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrCgD3pqLo
(113) Oath Keepers, http://www.oathkeepers.org/
(114) United States Code – Title 31 – MONEY AND FINANCE (Chapter 3 – DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY - Subchapter I – ORGANIZATION), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/subtitle-I/chapter-3/subchapter-I
(115) Bureau of Internal Revenue of the Philippines (via Wikipedia), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Internal_Revenue%28Philippines%29
(116) IRS Exposed: IRS is a privately owned Puerto Rican trust by Dan Meador, http://mystrangemind.com/2006/08/irs-exposed-irs-is-privately-owned.html
(117) IRS: The Biggest Scam in History by Sheriff Richard Mack (via archive.org), https://web.archive.org/web/20110914172531/http://polymontana.com/2011/05/07/irs-the-biggest-scam-in-history/
(118) Sheriff Mack: 'The Biggest Scam in History', http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/government/banking_and_taxation_irs_and_insurance/social_security/news.php?q=1304698536
(119) Annual Report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1954 (via the IRS’s website), http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/54dbfullar.pdf
(120) United States Code – Title 31 – MONEY AND FINANCE – 1321 - Trust funds (via Cornell Law), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/1321
(121) The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – Policy Basics: Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go?, http://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go
(122) The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – Policy Basics: Where Do Federal Tax Revenues Come From?, http://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-where-do-federal-tax-revenues-come-from?fa=view&id=3822
(123) TreasuryDirect.gov – Interest Expense on the Debt Outstanding, https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htm
(124) The Grace Commission (via Wikipedia), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grace_Commission
(125) The Grace Commission (PDF report), http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs9044/m1/1/high_res_d/IP0281G.pdf