The Extended Arm of the United States Government in its Battle against Tax Evaders
Professor: Kenneth Lavery
Submitted By: Deanne Patterson
Week 6: July 31, 2011
Taxes are a major contributor of the American economy. The tax system in the United States depends on voluntary compliance, which means that each citizen is responsible for filing a tax return when required and for determining and paying the correct amount of tax”. (Albrect, Albrect, Albrect & Albrect and Zimbelman). When individuals under report, exaggerate deductions, and hide money in off shore accounts, this is clearly misrepresentation of their income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and is deemed tax evasion. The term “tax evasion” is defined as using illegal
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The Interpretation of the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States continues to present many arguments as to the legality of income taxes in America and Globally. This student believes that the interpretation of the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States continues to present many arguments concerning the legality of the American income tax system. When the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified (February 3, 1913) giving Congress the power "to lay and collect taxes on incomes", citizens began arguing that it was not properly ratified and income taxes are illegal. Citizens continue to raise such arguments in spite of the fact that they have no basis in law and the courts have repeatedly rejected their arguments as frivolous. Promoters and their followers have long employed frivolous arguments concerning the legality of the income tax as pretexts to enrich themselves or evade their taxes. Their motivation is usually monetary. Anti-taxation groups used different arguments to gain followers, they all share one thing in common; they received substantial sentences in a federal prison for their activities. Their followers paid a steep price for following bad advice. Some were prosecuted, many more were involved in years of litigation and ultimately had to pay all taxes owed along with penalties and
Now the following information is well documented and is presented for your review and edification. Do not try to fight the IRS in federal court, you will not win. The deception runs rampant throughout the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
The arguments regarding federal progressive income tax has been represented to us through the United States Supreme Court, on the floors of congress, and in media. The revenue from taxes reached the objective of financing wars from the Civil War through World War II. At the same time deteriorating the economy with fewer dollars that could be used on imports, exports, and services (Henchman). Today, the United States deficit is $18,800,241,350,538.12 this is a grand total of 58,405.32 owed by every man, woman, and child (Brown). The legal illusion is presenting the question, is income tax legal? There are Americans today who believe income tax is not legal and stand by their beliefs in a movement that has cost many individuals considerably. I am interviewing such a person, his name is Bobby Ray and the history he presented to me was interesting, and has left me with more questions than answers.
Congress taxed states based on their population, rather than an individual’s income. Progressives believed people with a higher incomes should pay a higher percent of taxes, so those with lower incomes were able to pay a lower amount of taxes. The Sixteenth Amendment was passed and gave Congress the power to create a personal income tax, based on how much a person makes rather than
The first proposal to impose an income tax on Americans occurred during the War of 1812. After two years of war, the federal government had accumulated a whopping $100 million of debt. To fund the war against Britain, the government doubled the rates of its major source of revenue, customs duties on imports, which obstructed trade and ended up yielding less revenue than the previous lower rates. At the height of the war, excise taxes were imposed on goods and commodities, housing, slaves and land were taxed. Finally when the war ended in 1816, these taxes were abolished. A high tariff was then passed to retire the accumulated war debt. Thankfully, the notion of an income tax was conquered (Young, 2004). However, the thought of the income tax reappeared as an idea to fund the Union armies in the war to prevent the secession of the Confederacy. The war was expensive, costing on average $1,750,000 a day. Struggling to meet these expenses, the Republican Congress borrowed heavily, doubled tariff rates, sold off public lands, imposed a maze of licensing fees, increased old excise tax rates and created new excise taxes. But none of this was enough to fund the debt (Young, 2004)..
The 16th amendment is an important amendment that allows the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT to collect income tax from all americans. this allows for the government to keep an army, build road and bridges, enforce laws and carry out important rules and regulations. the 16th amendment was passed because many people believe an income tax would provide a more stable source of income than by a chief way in which government had been financed throughout history to that point but such a tax could not be imposed because the Supreme Court had ruled in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company. PROS of 16th amendment, The federal government can collect revenues from income and thus increase expenditures. and government gets money from tax revenue, fines and
The origin of the income tax on individuals is generally mentioned as the passage of the 16th amendment, which was passed by congress on July 2,1909. The history of individual income tax in the U.S.A goes back to 1861. During the civil war, congress passed the revenue act of 1861, which included taxing on personal incomes to help pay the expenses of the war. This tax was repealed after the war. In 1894, congress made a flat rate federal income tax, but the U.S Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. During the following
(A) Historical meaning- The 16th amendment means that Congress can impose and collect taxes on the income of citizens. The 16th amendment was influenced by a certain court case and also by the Income Tax Act of 1894. The Income Tax Act was a law that taxed interest, dividends, and rents of citizens. The Supreme Court stated that the Tax Act was a direct tax and was labeled unconstitutional.
The Sixteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution gives the United States government the right to tax income.
The purpose of the Sixteenth Amendment was that it provided power to the Congress to directly or indirectly tax all income. It also allow government to create income taxes and caused all taxpayers (individual and corporate) to pay a portion of their income to the government. The Sixteenth Amendment created a key way to generate funds to run the country.
The sixteenth amendment states that “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.” This means that it allows federal government to levy an income tax from all Americans. Income tax allows for the federal government to keep an army, build roads and bridges, enforce laws and carry out other important duties (Fiskin, Forbath, & Jensen, 2017).
The purpose of this report is to determine if the government is acting fairly in its taxation of the American population, and to point out the waste in government spending. In an article published November 1995, an unknown author explained the need for government "revenue" by defending what the revenue supplies for the people. In America we live within a free enterprise society. A free enterprise system is based on the idea of competition is good and that only the most efficient businesses will survive. The free enterprise system works with the idea that the consumer is somewhat knowledgeable about the products they buy. However, in today's modern world the consumer cannot be always be expected to make an informed decision about something. This is where federal laws are put in place to protect the interest of the public. Examples of such laws are regulations covering quality and safety of home
Lane tried to forge Don’s signature using the company’s business check to repay his debt, he was hoping to cover this fraud in the expectation of his future bonus from the company. He committed the most common and direct type of fraud, which is called the “Employee Embezzlement”. The direct type is where the assets go directly to the perpetrators without the help or involvement of a third
In addition to economic issues, taxation is also a political issue. Political leaders formulate tax policies to bring reforms in the taxation system in order to promote their agendas. The major tax reforms include: increasing or decreasing the tax rate, imposing new taxes on certain products and changing the definition of taxable income. It is evident from the research studies that no one deliberately wants to pay taxes. U.S’ tax policy reflects expression of influence - i.e., those who have power are successful in paying low taxes and their burden is shifted to people who have no power. Therefore retired individuals, small business owners and farmers find ways efforts to reduce their tax burden. Since its existence, tax policy has been enormously used for promoting political and economic agendas.
This research paper will explore the fraud at Tyco and focus primarily on accounting and auditing issues related to the fraud. One thing worth noting about this case is that fraudulent financial reporting was not at the core of the fraud, which was the case with majority other big frauds at the time, such as Enron and Waste Management. On the contrary, fraud consisted of misappropriation of assets, and fraudulent financial reporting came as a consequence of trying to hide misappropriation of assets and the use of corporate money for personal benefit.
The individual income tax is complicated, and it violates transparency standards through created loopholes (or tax preferences) which allow some to pay less than their fair share of taxes (Mikesell, 2011). In 2005, more than 70 percent of individuals filing taxes had tax preparers complete their returns because of confusing rules and regulations that could penalize taxpayers for qualifying for certain legal tax preferences (Mikesell, 2011). This transparency problem exists because citizens are really unaware of how to determine their tax liability except at the end of the year. Income taxes are collected annually through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and there are constant complaints about the IRS not willing to assist taxpayers