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ABSTRACT
In the twentieth century taxation of incomes as we know it was formalized amidst a vigorous debate on a government's overall power to tax. This power was a central point in the establishment of the United States government. The framers of the US Constitution were meticulous in limiting the federal government's overall powers and the power to tax was drafted within the limited context of the sovereignty of the States. However, the fiscal challenges brought about by domestic and global conflicts moved the issue of federal taxation to fund these conflicts to the forefront. The need for an uninterrupted stream of revenue gave rise to the unlimited power to tax granted by the sixteenth amendment to the US constitution. After 103 years, this paper focuses on the effects the unlimited power tax has had on our general constitutional freedoms. The power to tax is critiqued in answering the question... should that power now be limited?
The Power to Tax
"Government" is a primary human constraint that naturally evolved in society to produce an ordered community. It takes many forms and is operative legitimate or otherwise. At the most sophisticated levels government is a discernible force consisting of codified laws and mandates enforceable to varying degrees. Tax laws are at the heart of government power. Legitimate tax laws stem from an elected governing body but tax law often embodies a political ideology of the people it governs.
"...the authority to lay and collect taxes is the most important of the things that count the hours while you any power that can be granted; it connects with it almost all other powers, or at least in process of time draw all others after it; it is the great means of protection, security, and defense, in a good government, and the great engine of oppression and tyranny in a bad one. - Anonymous, Author of Anti-Federalist Paper Number 17
There are four major activities of government: behavioral control, economic structure, general defense and general welfare. While these activities are separately discernable functions, the execution of these functions interact. This interaction can be harmonious or dysfunctional. For example, government cannot provide for a defense of its citizens if it cannot pay for such a defense, so...