[Mihai]

If you like paying 80% of your income to taxes, in order that many services are taken care of for you, then live in a state that runs that way. If not, live in a state that doesn't. At least in a state-sized jurisdiction, you have the possibility of projecting your individual wishes to your representatives.

But could you run a country even in a moderately stable fashion this way?

I agree though, it is such a convoluted system. You pay taxes on your income, your employer pays taxes for the money they pay you, then you pay taxes again on your retirement, money you've already been taxed on...and then you pay taxes on every product you buy with the moeny you've already been taxed on......what?

I don't understand though how those people in the movie supposedly haven't paid income tax in the US for decades. How is that possible, why are some called to court and others not?

http://evans-legal.com/dan/tpfaq.html

[tom]

You pay taxes on your income, your employer pays taxes for the money they pay you, then you pay taxes again on your retirement, money you've already been taxed on...and then you pay taxes on every product you buy with the money you've already been taxed on......what?

It's a game called "Taxes and Penalty" from Money Bros.

[JDHill]

But could you run a country even in a moderately stable fashion this way?

It was an exaggeration, in actuality, the tendency is always toward the middle, states look 'more-or-less' like one another, but there can be enough differences to make you want to live in one or the other.

I just hate the trip of my dollar:

> somebody pays me a dollar (it cost them $1.33 to do it)
> I pay Uncle Sam $0.33
> some chick in DC sees sees my money go across her desk, but there are administrative costs, so it's now only $0.25
> some Senator from another state tacks an amendment on a bill, to fund a bridge in his hometown...my $0.25 turns into $0.18
> b.s. like this repeats a hundred times in the bowels of Washington

When it's all done, I hear my State Governor telling me that we've got to raise our State whatzit tax to x-amount or else we're not going to qualify to get some billion-dollar Federal-matching-fund dispersement handed back to States by the Fed.


btw...if you don't want to pay taxes in the US, it's easy...only work for cash, never buy anything, and never fill out a tax form. It's not for everybody, but...maybe you'll have fun.

[Mihai]

Looking at the movie in Thomas second link, they say, even according to the IRS tax code, filing for income tax and paying income tax is voluntary, due to limitations imposed by the US Constitution. So then how can they send you to prison for not doing something that is voluntary?

Another astonishing tidbit, under Reagan when he wanted to make a tax reform, he formed a commission called the Grace commission if I remember correctly that concluded that all the money collected from income tax, goes to pay interest for the federal debt. ZERO for the things you typically think you're paying taxes for. They said gasoline tax pays for the roads, property tax pays for education, and corporate taxes pay for defense.....

Interesting.......

[michaelplogue]

You pay taxes on your income, your employer pays taxes for the money they pay you, then you pay taxes again on your retirement, money you've already been taxed on...and then you pay taxes on every product you buy with the money you've already been taxed on......what?

It gets even more convoluted......

I work for the US government. My paycheck comes from the taxes that everyone pays. My income is also taxed, which goes back into the pot once again, and eventually works its way back to me, where it's taxed again, and again, for all of eternity...... a never-ending cycle... At least until I die....

[tom]

Who said this is not really happening...

[JDHill]

So then how can they send you to prison for not doing something that is voluntary?

First answer the question: What is the law? That which is written...or that which is enforced?

[ivox3]

Nice discussion , .......but I fear the major point is being missed. Russo is telling you that the Federal Reserve is a privately held institution and not the governmental institiution that most people think.

this... is what some people refer to the people behind all this as ......

Who knows, .....I'm just reporting ......

..you can do the Googling.

[michaelplogue]

Ha ha!! I just figured out that over one third of my paycheck is coming from me!

[RonB]

and corporate taxes pay for defense.....

Now that's a joke!! Most, if not all, corporations are the principal receiver's of government welfare. They also pay far less taxes than one might expect because of offshore tax havens. Halliburton for instance has only 36 of it's 143 subsidiaries incorportated in the U.S. The rest are in tax haven countries, the Cayman Islands, which has no corporate income tax, Liechtenstein and also Panama. Yet Halliburton receives the vast majority of it's business from the U.S. government, many billions. Fortune 500 companies with the most offshore tax havens are dominated by energy firms, including El Paso (#1), AES (#2), Aon (#5), Mirant (#7), Halliburton (#8), and Williams (#14).

It is estimated the IRS loses about $90 billion a year in offshore tax sheltering by corporations and wealthy individuals.

What a con...

[Thomas An.]

Ha ha!! I just figured out that over one third of my paycheck is coming from me!

There you go ... a self made millionaire

[michaelplogue]

Ha ha!! I just figured out that over one third of my paycheck is coming from me!

There you go ... a self made millionaire

Well, I'm very disappointed with the work I have been doing for myself, so I've put myself on notice to improve or I'll stop paying me.......

[Mihai]

So then how can they send you to prison for not doing something that is voluntary?

First answer the question: What is the law? That which is written...or that which is enforced?

Well, in theory, what is written. In practice, what is enforced And somewhere in the middle are the interpretations, which is kind of a paradox to "written law" isn't it?

Btw, I'm not sure why so many people in that vid say there is no law, isn't this the law?

http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/jsiegel/ ... tNoLaw.htm

Now that's a joke!! Most, if not all, corporations are the principal receiver's of government welfare.

Still, it would be interesting to see exactly which kind of taxes pay for what....

[glypticmax]

Most Americans live in Amerika and think they live in America.
And frankly the less you see that, the more out of touch you are.
Live a while in DC and you begin to get a sense of it.

If you think Mr. Russo is wrong, post the links to prove it.
A private banking corporation controls the money supply in our country.
Approved by Congress in the early 20th Century.
Congress gave control of the money supply to a privately owned banking corporation in 1913.
Hello!!

[ivox3]

... exactly.