Determined to find the law that requires Americans to pay income tax
Right-wingers (or is just libertarians) claim all the time that the federal income tax is invalid because the 16th Amendment was not properly ratified. However, there is no bona fide evidence to indicate that these claims are true.
Letâs examine some of the supposed reasons for invalidating the 16th Amendment:
âNot ratified by state legislature but reported as ratifiedâ
This supposedly applies to the states of Kentucky, Tennessee and Wyoming. But, if these states did not really ratify the 16th Amendment, why have their legislators never made an issue of this fact? And just who reported these non-existent ratifications? If these states did not want the 16th Amendment, and their rejection would have killed the 16th Amendment, why have the people of these states submitted to the 16th Amendment for over 90 years?
âMissing or incomplete evidence of ratification but reported as ratifiedâ
Did evidence for ratification exist at the time ratification was reported? Some of the original 13 states have lost their official copies of the Declaration of Independence, thus suggesting that evidence for their approval is missing or incomplete. So must these states be returned to Great Britain?
âFailure of Governor or other official to sign, although required by State Constitutionâ
The procedures for amending the U.S. Constitution are found only in the U.S. Constitution. Any requirements imposed by any state over and above what the U.S. Constitution requires are unconstitutional in themselves. The U.S. Constitution does not require that a stateâs governor give his consent to ratification, therefore such consent is never needed.
âOther violation of State Constitution in ratification processâ
Again, what power does a mere state have to interpret the federal Constitution? No state can impose requirements that are not permitted by the U.S. Constitution.
âApproval with change in wording; accepted as ratification of original versionâ
What was the original wording and what changes did the states make? Again, states have no power to alter an amendment that has been proposed by Congress, but then again no anti-income tax crusader (or it that income tax evader?) has ever produced documentation for this claim.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/articles/tax/basics/6195.asp?Printer
Kentucky is supposedly a state that ratified an altered version of the 16th Amendment. This is true; Kentucky did ratify the amendment, but the legislature then repealed that ratification when it was realized that the wording had been altered. Kentucky later did ratify the amendment as it is properly worded.
âApproval with change in spelling, capitalization or punctuation; accepted as ratification of original versionâ
Again, what was the original version and what changes were made by the states?
And note that the spelling and grammar found in the document that was produced in Philadelphia in 1787 do not fully conform with modern-day conventions. So when a website or book publishes the text of the Constitution with modernized spelling and punctuation and capitalization, is the document null and void?
Even with all of the supposed defects in ratification, the fact remains that the states overwhelmingly wanted a federal income tax. Only 6 of the 48 states that comprised the Union in 1913 failed to ratify some form of the income tax amendment.
Note that I am not saying that I am in favor of the income tax. I would gladly see it replaced with a tax on wages/salary (as opposed to income) and debt. But I see no reason to present myself as a fool by claiming things that are contrary to fact.
