Government Bytes: The Official Blog of National Taxpayers Union

The Official Blog of National Taxpayers Union

Federal Income Tax Remains Extremely Progressive

Posted by Jeff Dircksen - October 04, 2005

The IRS has released data for tax year 2003 that shows the top 1% of taxpayers (based on adjusted gross income) paid 34.27% of all personal income taxes paid. This is up from 33.71% for tax year 2002. The data for tax year 2003 is provided below. Data for previous years is available here.

Percentiles Ranked by AGI	AGI Threshold on Percentiles	Percentage of Federal Personal IncomeTax Paid
Top 1%	$295,495	34.27
Top 5%	$130,080	54.36
Top 10%	$94,891	65.84
Top 25%	$57,343	83.88
Top 50%	$29,019	96.54
Bottom 50%	<$29,019	3.46
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income Source: Internal Revenue Service

Thoughts? Add Comment -

Louis Varnson said on Oct 05 2005 at 9:13am
If only regular media outlets reported this information. Someone should forward this information to Neil Boortz. He always does his best to get this info into the mainstream.

Kevin moore said on Oct 07 2005 at 2:35pm
PROGRESSIVE INCOME TAX IS COMMUNIST

Read the 10 Planks of The Communist Manifesto to discover the truth and learn how to know your enemy...

Karl Marx describes in his communist manifesto, the ten steps necessary to destroy a free enterprise system and replace it with a system of omnipotent government power, so as to effect a communist socialist state. Those ten steps are known as the Ten Planks of The Communist Manifesto… The following brief presents the original ten planks within the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx in 1848, along with the American adopted counterpart for each of the planks. From comparison it's clear MOST Americans have by myths, fraud and deception under the color of law by their own politicians in both the Republican and Democratic and parties, been transformed into Communists.

Another thing to remember, Karl Marx in creating the Communist Manifesto designed these planks AS A TEST to determine whether a society has become communist or not. If they are all in effect and in force, then the people ARE practicing communists.

Communism, by any other name is still communism, and is VERY VERY destructive to the individual and to the society!!

The 10 PLANKS stated in the Communist Manifesto and some of their American counterparts are...

1. Abolition of private property and the application of all rents of land to public purposes.
Americans do these with actions such as the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (1868), the recent Kelo v New London ruling, and various zoning, school & property taxes. Also the Bureau of Land Management (Zoning laws are the first step to government property ownership) ***************
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2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
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Americans know this as misapplication of the 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, 1913, The Social Security Act of 1936.; Joint House Resolution 192 of 1933; and various State "income" taxes. We call it "paying your fair share".

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
Americans call it Federal & State estate Tax (1916); or reformed Probate Laws, and limited inheritance via arbitrary inheritance tax statutes.

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
Americans call it government seizures, tax liens, Public "law" 99-570 (1986); Executive order 11490, sections 1205, 2002 which gives private land to the Department of Urban Development; the imprisonment of "terrorists" and those who speak out or write against the "government" (1997 Crime/Terrorist Bill); or the IRS confiscation of property without due process. Asset forfeiture laws are used by DEA, IRS, ATF etc...).

5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
Americans call it the Federal Reserve which is a privately-owned credit/debt system allowed by the Federal Reserve act of 1913. All local banks are members of the Fed system, and are regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) another privately-owned corporation. The Federal Reserve Banks issue Fiat Paper Money and practice economically destructive fractional reserve banking.

6. Centralization of the means of communications and transportation in the hands of the State.
Americans call it the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Transportation (DOT) mandated through the ICC act of 1887, the Commissions Act of 1934, The Interstate Commerce Commission established in 1938, The Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Communications Commission, and Executive orders 11490, 10999, as well as State mandated driver's licenses and Department of Transportation regulations.

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
Americans call it corporate capacity, The Desert Entry Act and The Department of Agriculture… Thus read "controlled or subsidized" rather than "owned"… This is easily seen in these as well as the Department of Commerce and Labor, Department of Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Mines, National Park Service, and the IRS control of business through corporate regulations.

8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
Americans call it Minimum Wage and slave labor like dealing with our Most Favored Nation trade partner; i.e. Communist China. We see it in practice via the Social Security Administration and The Department of Labor. The National debt and inflation caused by the communal bank has caused the need for a two "income" family. Woman in the workplace since the 1920's, the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, assorted Socialist Unions, affirmative action, the Federal Public Works Program and of course Executive order 11000.

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries, gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of population over the country.
Americans call it the Planning Reorganization act of 1949 , zoning (Title 17 1910-1990) and Super Corporate Farms, as well as Executive orders 11647, 11731 (ten regions) and Public "law" 89-136. These provide for forced relocations and forced sterilization programs, like in China.

10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.
Americans are being taxed to support what we call 'public' schools, but are actually "government force-tax-funded schools " Even private schools are government regulated. The purpose is to train the young to work for the communal debt system. We also call it the Department of Education, the NEA and Outcome Based "Education" . These are used so that all children can be indoctrinated and inculcated with the government propaganda, like "majority rules", and "pay your fair share". WHERE are the words "fair share" in the Constitution, Bill of Rights or the Internal Revenue Code (Title 26)?? NO WHERE is "fair share" even suggested !! The philosophical concept of "fair share" comes from the Communist maxim, "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need! This concept is pure socialism. ... America was made the greatest society by its private initiative WORK ETHIC ... Teaching ourselves and others how to "fish" to be self sufficient and produce plenty of EXTRA commodities to if so desired could be shared with others who might be "needy"... Americans have always voluntarily been the MOST generous and charitable society on the planet.

Do changing words, change the end result? ... By using different words, is it all of a sudden OK to ignore or violate the provisions or intent of the Constitution of the united States of America?????

The people (politicians) who believe in the SOCIALISTIC and COMMUNISTIC concepts, especially those who pass more and more laws implementing these slavery ideas, are traitors to their oath of office and to the Constitution of the united States of America... KNOW YOUR ENEMY ...Remove the enemy from within and from among us.

Kevin Moore said on Oct 11 2005 at 1:27pm
September 30, 2005

USDC To Hear 16th Amendment Fraud Issue

DOJ Lawsuit Against Bill Benson Backfires

Twenty-five years ago Bill Benson, a former Illinois Department of Revenue investigator, began a cross-country trip across the forty-eight states that comprised the Union in 1913 seeking documentary evidence regarding the ratification of the 16th Amendment. This was a most important undertaking, because the government uses the 16th Amendment as its sole authority to tax an individual’s wages and salaries.

During his two-year trip, Benson collected thousands of certified legal documents from both state and federal archives documenting exactly how the 16th Amendment was acted on by each state legislature and handled by the office of the Secretary of State for the United States.

In the end, Benson had assembled an irrefutable mountain of evidence showing that during the final days of the William Howard Taft administration in 1913, the 16th Amendment was fraudulently declared by the U.S. Secretary of State, Philander Knox, to have been properly ratified by the requisite number of state legislatures. Bill Benson, and his co-researcher Red Beckman, documented the results of their work in a two volume research report entitled, “The Law That Never Was.”

Until now, no federal court has agreed to examine the vast body of legal evidence compiled by Benson. Indeed, the federal courts, both District and Appellate, have consistently refused to tackle the troubling issue, claiming the matter of the fraudulent ratification of the Amendment to be a “political question” for Congress to decide, and beyond the jurisdiction of the courts.

For more than 20 years, this judge-made “political question” doctrine has blocked a resolution of the issue.

Today, as the result of a dramatic court battle now being waged in Chicago, Bill Benson and Red Beckman may be on their way to vindication and the federal government may soon find itself scrambling for a new principal source of revenue.

In November 2004, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Benson in the USDC in Chicago, accusing him of operating a “fraudulent tax shelter” and violating Section 6700 of the Internal Revenue Code.

At the heart of Benson’s alleged fraudulent tax shelter “scheme” is the two-volume research book, The Law That Never Was. The hard bound publication is an exhaustive, detailed review of each state’s legislative process regarding its adoption, or rejection, of the 16th Amendment.

The government claims Benson fraudulently induced large numbers of Americans to stop paying income taxes because they relied upon fraudulent statements contained in Benson’s “Reliance Defense Package”.

Shortly after being charged, Benson’s lawyer, Jeff Dickstein, filed a Motion to Dismiss the suit, claiming that Benson, as a matter of law, could not present a defense as to the factual truth of his claims regarding the ratification fraud because the federal courts have repeatedly ruled that the issue is outside their legal domain, and hence, the courts are without subject matter jurisdiction.

Specifically, Benson’s attorney argued that because the fact of making “false or fraudulent statements” is a central element of the alleged unlawful act, Due Process requires that Benson must be given an opportunity to directly defend the factual question of whether Benson’s claims are true or false – despite the fact that the federal courts apparently lack any jurisdiction to consider or adjudicate such a question. This legal “Catch-22”, Dickstein argued, required the dismissal of the case.

Ignoring this constitutional quagmire, the District Court in Chicago rejected Benson’s Motion to Dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, thereby indirectly admitting it did, in fact, have subject matter jurisdiction regarding the ratification of the amendment.

Most importantly, the Court must now address the exercise of Benson’s Due Process Rights which include challenging the factual substance of the government's allegations, i.e., that Benson is willfully and falsely telling people that because the 16th amendment wasn't ratified, people do not have to file a federal income tax return.

During a status conference, the Court specifically stated it would study The Law That Never Was and also ordered Benson to submit a legal brief arguing the details of the fraud for the Court. On August 1, Benson’s attorney filed the legal brief detailing aspects of the ratification fraud.

As Benson’s documentation overwhelmingly establishes, the fraud was deliberate and pervasive throughout the four-year long amending process. As a single example, consider Kentucky’s resolution on the 16th Amendment which was recorded by the Secretary of State as having passed the amendment on a vote of 22 to 9. In fact, the source historical record shows that Kentucky’s resolution was rejected on a vote of 22 to 9, thereby voiding the 16th Amendment, which Philander Knox alleged had been passed with only a two-state margin.

Will Benson Enjoy Due Process Or
Will His Claims Be Judicially Presumed False?

On its face, Benson’s legal proceedings can be considered the worst possible scenario for the government. Despite all efforts to avoid such, the government is slowly being forced by a District Court into directly confronting the legal evidence put forth by Benson.

That is, to successfully sustain its legal claim against Benson for allegedly violating Section 6700 of the Internal Revenue Code, (i.e., running a “fraudulent tax shelter”), the government must establish for the record that Benson had an “illicit state of mind” by proving that Benson could have had NO rationale or reasonable basis to believe that his claims regarding the 16th Amendment are, as a matter of law, true.

Unfortunately for the government, standing in its way are thousands of certified, legislative documents and a court-ordered hearing to examine Benson’s rationale in advancing his allegedly fraudulent claims.

According to Benson, at an earlier status conference, DOJ officials openly offered to settle out of court and that they only wanted to bar him from distributing his 16th Amendment “reliance package”. However, as part of the settlement, DOJ also wanted a list of Benson's customers. In response, Benson asserted his right to remain silent because an IRS CID special agent asked about Benson in connection with an on-going grand jury investigation in another state. Benson did not settle out of court.

On August 4, presumably to avoid any further public hearings on the matter, the government filed a Motion for Summary Judgment. Benson's attorney is currently working on a response to this motion and is preparing a cross-motion for summary judgment. Oral arguments regarding Benson’s research have not yet been held.

Benson, who for years failed in his attempts to force the government to honestly respond to his legal research has, through a strange turn of events involving these Section 6700 civil charges, been drawn into a legal conflict where he may yet have his questions answered.

Ironically, in its insatiable desire to suppress the distribution of an ever-growing body of research exposing the legal fraud of our tax system, and to quash those that act in good faith upon that research to secure their Rights, the government, in its lawsuit against Bill Benson, has inadvertently put itself in the position of having to confront the very thing it dreads – a public, judicial hearing where it must rebut the existence of thousands of certified legal documents that irrefutably establish that our income tax statutes have no constitutional authority.

Some might conclude the government’s lawsuit against Bill Benson has backfired.

Barbara M. Anderson said on Oct 13 2005 at 7:40pm
In 1809, Thomas Jefferson said, "Truth is the first object."

In an article that asks, "Why Are You in Debt," the following is the rebuttal and it reinforces Devvy Kidd's article wirtten in mid 2005.

Devvy says, "The purpose behind this chicanery is not to benefit the American people, but to further enrich the coffers of the private banking cartel aka the Federal Reserve. This is where you collected tax money ends up - not being paid out for benefits for we Americans!

Now, Prospernomics says this. "You are in debt, I am in deby and why?

All money in circulation goes through the lending process. That is right. It is in the lending process that money is created. When you go the bank for a loan they are not allowed to lend you their or their depositors' money. No. They created money from your promise to pay. That is a fact. The bank creates money from your promissory note and puts it into your loan account and then lends it to you! That is new money that never existed before. It increases the nation's money supply, which is o.k., but...

When you borrow money from the bank you expect to get the money and to pay it back with interest. Right? Of course. But think. When you borrow money the create new money to loan to you don't they? Yes. But do they create any money to pay the interest? No. So they create and put enough money into circulation to repay the principals of the loans because they create money equal only to the loan amount. You took the money loaned you and spent it. Spending it puts it into circulation. There is enough money out there in circulation to pay back all the loans but there is no money out there to pay the interest. Yet everyone pays back loans w/interest. Where does the interest come from? The only place it can come from is from the money in circulation, the principal, the original moneyh loaned. There is no monehy in circulation with whcih to pay interest. If everyone is payng interest from the principal, the original money loaned , it is impossible to pay interest at all. As we pay interest we deplete the money supply. The result is a shortage in the money supply to pay even the principal. You cannot pay money that does not exist. When they create new money by making loans they never create money to pay interest so that the interest paid is out of the principal and eventually you have no money to pay the principal.

It is impossible to pay back all of the principal because you have to take from it to pay your interest - in other words, the interest reduces the money supply so that it is impossible to pay back all of the principal.

Simple solution: In order for the money supply to be adequate to sustain any economy we have to understand the two components of any economy. Yes every economy made up of only two parts...no more; good and services and secondly money to buy these goods and services.