What does the income tax do?

Answer 1

Income Taxes don't do anything.

In fact, here's a direct quote of the the 1984 "Grace Commission" report to the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

"With two-thirds of everyone's personal income taxes wasted or not collected, 100 percent of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the Federal debt and by Federal Government contributions to transfer payments. In other words, all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services which taxpayers expect from their Government."

Notice how 100% of what IS collected goes to fund primarily INTEREST on Federal Debt. So much for that misunderstanding that "your taxes" pay for government services and roads.

Income Tax is an INDIRECT TAX. The Supreme Court has made this point very clear in 1916 only 3 years after the 16th Amendment, commonly referred to as the Income Tax amendment, was ratified. The 16th Amendment confirms that the Income Tax can ONLY be imposed under the category of Indirect. The 16th amendment is a moot point in the scheme of things anyway. All it did was to confirm Congress' taxing power by the US Supreme Court concerning income tax as an indirect tax and nothing else!
Income Tax is an INDIRECT tax by it's very nature. It is NOT a direct tax as others here have suggested. The 2 US Supreme Court Cases in 1916 settled that this very question are as follows:

BRUSHABER v. UNION PACIFIC R. CO., 240 U.S. 1 (1916)

AND

STANTON v. BALTIC MINING CO, 240 U.S. 103 (1916)

The Court said specifically in the Stanton case the following:
" it manifestly disregards the fact that by the previous ruling it was settled that the provisions of the 16th Amendment conferred no new power of taxation, but simply prohibited the previous complete and plenary power of income taxation possessed by Congress from the beginning from being taken out of the category of indirect taxation to which it inherently belonged, " So here we can see, beyond ANY shadow of a doubt, that the court confirms that Congress can lay an income tax but ONLY as an indirect tax.

And as a side note, most tax professionals do NOT read the law to determine who is liable for the tax. Most tax professionals read IRS publications and just ASSUME anyone who makes money now owes an Income Tax. The most important aspects are glossed over like whom is subject to the tax, whom is liable for the tax (yes, it's different than whom the subject is), under what circumstances domestic US source income becomes taxable. So the who what when where and why are for the most part discarded as important by practically anyone whom works in the tax industry.

IRS Publications tell the story a bit different than a tax "professional" would. IRS Publications are sort of like "New Letters" put out by the IRS to the tax industry, including mostly ALL CPA's and Tax "Professionals". The IRS has a manual available on their website which any one can go read. Here's what THEIR OWN manual says about their own publications:

4.10.7.2.8 (01-01-2006)
IRS Publications

"IRS Publications explain the law in plain language for taxpayers and their advisers. They typically highlight changes in the law, provide examples illustrating Service positions, and include worksheets. Publications are nonbinding on the Service and do not necessarily cover all positions for a given issue. While a good source of general information, publications should not be cited to sustain a position."

The IRS has plainly stated in their OWN manual that Publications are NOT to be cited to sustain positions about the LAW even though that is what all tax professionals do anyway. This is because IRS publications and pamphlets are NOT the law. The IRS has already vindicated themselves from people who WRONGLY use publications like law.

So hopefully this has gotten you on the proper path to actually understanding what the "Income Tax" actually is and especially what it ISN'T! And, this is just the tip of the Iceberg of the mis-understandings the general public have about Income Tax law. So next time somebody says it's an direct tax, you can confidently re-correct them and confirm that it is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, an indirect tax.