Do I have to pay taxes?

Well, while I won’t tell you that you must, I will say, that generally you are required to pay taxes if you are a legal resident or citizen and, have income that exceeds the standard deductions and available credits to which you, according to your circumstance are entitled.

I know, I know, there’s this friend of yours who says, “taxes are illegal” and you don’t have to pay them. There is also the “filing of Form 1040 violates the Fifth Amendment right to not self-incriminate and the Fourth Amendment right to privacy” arguments. These amongst many other mythical arguments and perceived loopholes have laid the basis of challenges to the legality of the tax obligation. I may not be your friend, yet, but my friendly advice to you is simple, know the law. As you will see below the authority of the government to levy taxes is firmly entrenched in The Constitution of the United States, which last time I checked, is the law of the land.

The United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1, states, “The Congress shall have the Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States. “

The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified on February 3, 1913, states, “The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on income, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”

Having been granted these powers by the Constitution and the Sixteenth Amendment, Congress implemented tax laws. These laws make up the Internal Revenue Code which resides in Title 26 of the United States Code. Congress then delegated responsibility for the administration of these tax laws to the IRS. Regardless, throughout the years many have challenged this well-established reality only to have their arguments rejected by the courts and deemed frivolous and I believe you can see why.

By way of Section 6702 of the Internal Revenue Code, a $5,000 penalty is within the authority of the IRS to impose against persons who submit frivolous tax returns or other documents. I would believe that with all this in mind it behooves you to determine correctly, what your tax obligations are, as failure to do so can have disturbing consequences.

At ProFile Tax and Accounting Services LLC we assist those of you who find the Internal Revenue Code a bit tedious, and somewhat of a labyrinth, to do just that.