Tax protestors and their obsession with the Federal Reserve
Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 12:05 am
Hello everyone. I've been a long time reader of Quatloos, and I just now decided to start posting.
To start, I have a question about a fairly common trend I've noticed not only from tax protestors/deniers, but from 9/11 truthers, sovereign citizens, gold bugs, and other assorted conspiracy theorists and fringe types.
What is it with many tax protestors and their obsession with the Federal Reserve?
I started noticing this as early as 2007, when I first learned about the concept of "tax protestors."
At that time, there was a whole bunch of tax protestor stuff being posted on various forums and on Digg (a then popular social news website) vaguely coinciding with the release of Aaron Russo's "America: Freedom to Fascism" as well as the 2008 presidential campaign of Ron Paul (a gold standard proponent who is certainly no fan of the Fed).
The posters would start threads with sensational claims like "There is no law requiring you to pay income tax!" or "Show the law to Ed and Elaine Brown and get a $1,000,000 reward!"
It was really odd that anyone would claim there was no income tax law, as I had certainly read about the Sixteenth Amendment. Some searching got me to the income tax law, namely 26 USC sections 1, 61, 63, 6012, and 6151. Aaron Russo and the Browns didn't search very hard, it would seem. Further searching brought me to Quatloos, Dan Evans' FAQ, and Jon Siegel's page (http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/jsiegel/ ... omeTax.htm).
It also seemed to me that, if there were any semblance of reality to such a claim of being no income tax due to an oversight or something, Congress could easily pass something fixing that (perhaps they could call it the "Yes, Virginia, There Is An Income Tax" Act).
Inevitably, someone on these threads would respond to the person who gave the TP claims, "Well then don't drive on highways, eat inspected food, or use anything else that the tax funds." It was at this point that the original poster would respond with "That's funded with other taxes! The Grace Commission Report says that the income tax just pays interest to the Federal Reserve!" From that point it would devolve into a bunch of conspiracy-mongering about the Fed and fractional reserve banking and other such nonsense ("It's no more federal than Federal Express" was one of their favorite quotes to post).
I had no idea why they would bring up this stuff about the Federal Reserve, or what the income tax had to do with monetary policy. First, the Grace report doesn't say what they think it says. Even if the claim about the income tax paying only interest were true (which it's not), it would be irrelevant to the question of whether or not you have to pay the income tax. Still, I have noticed this obsession with the Federal Reserve come up time and time again with all sorts of tax protestors, as well as with other assorted fringe characters.
Why is this the case? Is it just a matter of people looking for a scapegoat for economic hardship or other problems in their life, or is there something else to explain this weird fixation?
To start, I have a question about a fairly common trend I've noticed not only from tax protestors/deniers, but from 9/11 truthers, sovereign citizens, gold bugs, and other assorted conspiracy theorists and fringe types.
What is it with many tax protestors and their obsession with the Federal Reserve?
I started noticing this as early as 2007, when I first learned about the concept of "tax protestors."
At that time, there was a whole bunch of tax protestor stuff being posted on various forums and on Digg (a then popular social news website) vaguely coinciding with the release of Aaron Russo's "America: Freedom to Fascism" as well as the 2008 presidential campaign of Ron Paul (a gold standard proponent who is certainly no fan of the Fed).
The posters would start threads with sensational claims like "There is no law requiring you to pay income tax!" or "Show the law to Ed and Elaine Brown and get a $1,000,000 reward!"
It was really odd that anyone would claim there was no income tax law, as I had certainly read about the Sixteenth Amendment. Some searching got me to the income tax law, namely 26 USC sections 1, 61, 63, 6012, and 6151. Aaron Russo and the Browns didn't search very hard, it would seem. Further searching brought me to Quatloos, Dan Evans' FAQ, and Jon Siegel's page (http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/jsiegel/ ... omeTax.htm).
It also seemed to me that, if there were any semblance of reality to such a claim of being no income tax due to an oversight or something, Congress could easily pass something fixing that (perhaps they could call it the "Yes, Virginia, There Is An Income Tax" Act).
Inevitably, someone on these threads would respond to the person who gave the TP claims, "Well then don't drive on highways, eat inspected food, or use anything else that the tax funds." It was at this point that the original poster would respond with "That's funded with other taxes! The Grace Commission Report says that the income tax just pays interest to the Federal Reserve!" From that point it would devolve into a bunch of conspiracy-mongering about the Fed and fractional reserve banking and other such nonsense ("It's no more federal than Federal Express" was one of their favorite quotes to post).
I had no idea why they would bring up this stuff about the Federal Reserve, or what the income tax had to do with monetary policy. First, the Grace report doesn't say what they think it says. Even if the claim about the income tax paying only interest were true (which it's not), it would be irrelevant to the question of whether or not you have to pay the income tax. Still, I have noticed this obsession with the Federal Reserve come up time and time again with all sorts of tax protestors, as well as with other assorted fringe characters.
Why is this the case? Is it just a matter of people looking for a scapegoat for economic hardship or other problems in their life, or is there something else to explain this weird fixation?