Income Taxes, Money and the Constitution

As my friends can attest, I have been researching various aspects of our current political climate. I will start with a little history lesson before moving into the main topic.

We all know our country declared its independence from England in 1776 and a Constitutional Congress later convened and wrote the Constitution. What most of us did not know is they were convened to amend the Articles of Confederation, not become a run-away group who created an entirely new form of government.

Keep this fact in mind. There have been several movements over the years to convene a new Constitutional Congress. These movements have been based on single idea amendments like a balanced budget or state sovereignty but, once convened, there is no law to keep them to that idea. In fact, the original Constitutional Congress laid the groundwork for a run-away Constitutional Congress. A new Constitutional Congress could invalidate the Constitution completely. They would have the power to do as they pleased and no one could stop them from dictating a Marxist or any other form of government they chose.

“But there is always ratification,” you say. That seems to be the one flaw I have found in the wisdom of our Founding Fathers. They knew it would be difficult to find support out of all the states, so they wrote into the Constitution that only nine (9) states are needed to pass any “amendment” to the Constitution. They knew they had the support to pass the new Constitution from nine states. A new Congress could easily find support for new “amendments” out of so few required. We are only two (2) states away from calling a new Constitutional Congress.

Now on to the main topic. First I want to say that I am not telling you not to file or pay income tax. I am merely passing on some of my opinions and information garnered from others. In the Bible, Matthew 17, verses 24-27 is an example of paying taxes. Jesus likened taxes to a form of tribute to Satan. The fish represents a deity of that time. The deity was a form of the devil so taking a coin from the mouth of a fish to pay taxes places payment from the devil to the devil.

The Constitution places definite restrictions on taxes. Article I, Section 8 says, “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, Impost and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
         To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
         To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
         To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
         To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; …
         … To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years.
         … To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; …

In other words, Congress has the power to levy direct taxes on the Several States to regulate commerce, balance the budget or for emergency situations such as war or disaster. This does not give them the right to levy direct taxes on citizens. By the way, paragraph three also requires a balanced budget, so a Constitutional Congress is unnecessary to make the government stop overspending. It is already there.

The government can levy indirect taxes on citizens. Indirect taxes are duties, importation taxes and excise taxes (sin taxes) and must be uniform through all the States. Income tax has been defined by the Supreme Court as an excise tax. An excise tax is a tax imposed on:
•          The manufacture, sale or consumption of a commodity
•          Corporate privilege
•          Certain privileged occupations

No citizen can be assessed by the IRS under Constitutional law. Courts cannot make laws but judges and attorneys sometimes have reasons to misinterpret or circumvent the law. Courts can only interpret law and they have interpreted that if the law conflicts, there is no law. Amendment XVI is in conflict with Article I, Section 8, so there is no law for assessing income tax.

The IRS accuses people of breaking the law by not filing income tax returns. Since there is no law to assess income tax on citizens, more and more people no longer file income tax returns. The only way you can break the law is if you lie on a tax return. During the Clinton administration it is estimated that approximately 40,000,000 citizens quit filing.

There is another ruling of the courts making income tax invalid. Any law written so a person of average intelligence cannot understand it is void for vagueness. I defy any attorney or CPA, let alone a person of average intelligence, to prove the tax code is understandable. Even the IRS doesn’t really understand it.

The XVI Amendment illegally establishing income tax was ratified February 3, 1913. This is the same year powerful men met on Jekyll Island, Georgia to create the Federal Reserve but I will address that topic in another article.

Section 10, paragraph 1 limits the States as to money: “No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin money, emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.”

This says that States MUST pay only in gold or silver coin. If you work for a state agency you can insist on payment of wages in gold and silver coin. They cannot legally pay you by dollars or check since these are Bills of Credit.

As to the federal government, paragraph 5 of Article I, Section 8 makes it very clear that the government can coin money. It does not say print money; it says coin money. Since powerful international banking interests benefit from using paper money, printing paper money allows them to influence nations and courts because they hold the debt created by printing fiat dollars.

The original Constitutional Congress thoroughly discussed paper money. They had experienced issuance of “Continentals” and knew the pitfalls of paper money. They “forever barred the door against paper money” in Article I, Section 10 and the gold standard was officially adopted in 1834.

The influence of greedy powers led the government to ignore the Constitution and paper money was issued for the first time in 1862. William McKinley signed an act in 1900 making gold the standard for redeeming our paper money.  The gold standard was jeopardized in 1933 when Roosevelt confiscated all gold except for jewelry and we no longer were allowed to use gold coins. The final blow to our currency came on August 15, 1971 after Nixon announced the US would no longer use the gold standard. As of that day, our money became intrinsically useless and it is used only as a medium of exchange. Officially our fiat money can never be redeemed since there is nothing to back it.

This is just the beginning. There is much more on income taxes to be learned and I am still researching the Constitution and the Federal Reserve. Perhaps the answer to saving our country is buried in these topics and, with deeper digging, can be unearthed before it is too late.