Posted by Jay P Rutledge on July 18, 1997 at 04:22:19:
Some of the judicial decisions on the income tax hold it is an excise tax and some hold it is a direct tax. If it is an excise tax, then it is like the tax on gas, alcohol, tobacco, etc. Citizenship status is not relevant. If it is a direct tax, then citizenship status would make a difference because the 16th amendment would reach you through the 14th.
It is my humble opinion that the reason no argument works is that if you take the excise position, the IRS undercuts you with the direct tax argument and if you take the direct tax position, the IRS undercuts you with the excise tax argument. They have the best of all worlds: citations against either side of the tax tangle. And until a higher court decides one way or the other on the excise/direct question, they will continue to have both sides of the argument to enforce while you have only one side as a defence.
What the code actually makes you liable for under both the direct/excise applications of it is another subject matter as is the question of whether or not IRS agents are federal government agents and under oath and the consequences for enforcement if they are not.