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From: smb@ulysses.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.taxes
Subject: Re: income taxes
Message-ID: <694@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Nov-83 22:24:48 EST
Article-I.D.: ulysses.694
Posted: Wed Nov  9 22:24:48 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Nov-83 03:51:36 EST
References: <718@ihuxl.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 14

The first attempt to impose an income tax (in the 19th century, I believe)
was indeed declared unconstitutional.  This was remedied in 1913, when the
16th Amendment was ratified.  Its text reads:

	The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on
	incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment
	among the several States, and without regard to any census or
	enumeration.

Attempts to claim that income tax is illegal are at best misguided, and
at worst a deliberate attempt to distort the truth.  (Note:  I'm saying
nothing about the methods used by the IRS, or about the desirability or
morality of income tax.  I'm merely saying that it's specifically
permitted by the Constitution.)