Top Ten Civil Liberties Abuses of the Income Tax
by Chris Edwards
Director of Fiscal Policy Studies, Cato Institute, 2002
Any tax system creates a threat to individual liberty because “the power to tax involves the power to destroy,” as Chief Justice John Marshall observed.[1] But the federal income tax and its enforcement harm civil liberties much more than necessary to raise needed funds for the government. Certainly, the IRS performs poorly and too easily abuses the rights of citizens. But ultimately Congress is to blame for creating an excessively complex and high-rate tax system. New laws to increase taxpayer protections and replacement of the income tax with a simpler, flatter consumption-based tax could greatly reduce the following 10 areas of civil liberties abuse.
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