Our Voluntary Complinace System?
Why was it that you filed a voluntary tax return this year? I thought you were a free man? Better think again. Or maybe for the first time?
“We are reduced to the alternative of chusing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. – The latter is our choice. – We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. – Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.” A Declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North-America, Now Met in Congress at Philadelphia, Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking Up Arms.
If the law does not assure that tax returns filed by Americans will not be turned against them, our system of voluntary compliance with the tax laws faces a doubtful future. –Senator Frank Church, Chairman, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations, 94th Congress, First Session, Volume 3, Internal Revenue Service (October 2, 1975)
A hand from Washington will be stretched out and placed upon every man’s business; the eye of the federal inspector will be in every man’s counting house…. The law will of necessity have inquisical features, it will provide penalties, it will create complicated machinery. Under it, men will be hauled into courts distant from their homes. Heavy fines imposed by distant and unfamiliar tribunals will constantly menace the taxpayer. An army of federal inspectors, spies, arid detectives will descend upon the state. –Virginia House Speaker Richard E. Byrd, 1910, predicting what would happen It the federal Congress were to enact a federal Income tax.
Let me point this out now. Your income tax is 100 percent voluntary and your liquor tax is 100 percent enforced tax. Now the situation is as different as day and night. Consequently, your same rules just will not apply… –Dwight E. Avis, Head of ATF, IRS –House Ways and Means Subcommittee Hearings –1953
The real point of audits is to instill fear, not to extract revenue; the IRS aims at winning through intimidation and (thereby) getting maximum voluntary compliance. –Paul Strassel, Former IRS Headquarters Agent `Wall St. Journal’ 1/28/80
The IRS’s goal is to increase the rate at which taxpayers voluntarily pay their taxes from the current 82.3% to 90% by 2001. –The Washington Post front page Dec. 2, 1993, IRS Hopes Change
Each year American taxpayers voluntarily file their tax returns and make a special effort to pay the taxes they owe. –Johnie M. Walters IRS Commissioner, 1971 Form 1040 Booklet
From Publication 21/ 1998 update
Do you have to file a tax return and pay taxes?”
Answer from Pub. 21:
The U. S. income tax system is built on the idea of “voluntary compliance.” This means that it is left to the taxpayer to keep the necessary records, file a return on time, pay any required taxes, and meet any other requirements of the tax law. The system is built on trust in the citizens to know their responsibilities and to do what needs to be done. Taxpayers voluntarily follow the steps the tax system lays out. Failure to do so can result in penalties.
Two aspects of the Federal Income Tax system - voluntary compliance with the law and self-assessment of tax - make it important for you to understand your rights and responsibilities as a taxpayer. ‘Voluntary compliance’ places on the taxpayer the responsibility for filing an income tax return. You must decide whether the law requires you to file a return. If it does, you must file your return by the date it is due. –IRS Publication 21
You are among the millions of Americans who comply with the tax law voluntarily. –1992 Form1040 Tax Instruction Booklet
Our tax system is based on individual self-assessment and voluntary compliance. –Mortimer Caplin, IRS Commissioner, 1975 IRS IR Audit Manual
The mission of the service is to encourage and achieve the highest possible degree of voluntary compliance. –Donald C. Alexander, IRS Commissioner, Federal Register, March 1974
The IRS’s primary task is to collect taxes under a voluntary compliance system. –Jerome Kurtz IRS Commissioner, 1980 IR Annual Report
We have a voluntary compliance system. –Fred Goldberg, IRS Commissioner, Nightline with Ted Koppel, Apr.13, 1990
Our system of taxation is based on voluntary assessment and payment, not upon distraint. –United States v. Flora, 362 US 145 (1958)
When you doubt, do not act. Quod dubitas, ne feceris. –Maxim of law
Where the law is uncertain, there is no law. Ubi jus incertum, ibi jus nullum. –Maxim of law
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When the law fails to serve as a rule, almost everything ought to be suspected. Ubi non adest norma legis, omnia quasi pro suspectis habenda sunt. –Maxim of law
Where there is no authority to enforce, there is no authority to obey. Ubi non est condendi auctoritas, ibi non est parendi necessitas. –Maxim of law
Resignation is the spontaneous relinquishment of one’s own right. Resignatio est juris proprii spontanea refutatio. –Maxim of law
A wrong is not done to one who knows and wills it. Scientia et volunti non fit injuria. –Maxim of law