Brief History: Tax Dissidents

Americans have been protesting taxes since before there even was an America. (Hello, Boston Tea Party!) And while many may grumble about sending their hard-earned dollars Uncle Sam’s way, the vast majority will return their tax forms by April 15. But lurking out there somewhere are those who do more than just grumble. They protest.

Much of tax-protest theory is concerned with the little law that started it all: the 16th Amendment. Tax deniers say the provision, which gives Congress the power to levy an income tax, was never ratified by the necessary number of states and is therefore invalid–a charge that has been rejected by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the courts. There are those who have advocated abolishing the 16th: the “Liberty amendment” was first introduced in Congress in 1952 and has been resubmitted several times since, including most recently by Texas Representative Ron Paul in 2009. And then there’s Arthur Porth, who looked to another amendment for a way to evade payment. Through the early 1960s, he returned tax forms marked only with “I plead the Fifth …” a justification that had previously been struck down by the Supreme Court in the 1927 case United States v. Sullivan.

Some withhold payment as an act of civil disobedience. In 1846, Walden author Henry David Thoreau spent a night in jail for refusing to pay six years in back poll taxes as a protest against slavery and the Mexican-American War. This act of conscience influenced later protesters, like the suffragettes who refused to pay taxes to a government that did not grant them the right of representation. Like Thoreau, however, many tax objectors ultimately serve some time behind bars. Ben Franklin knew what he was talking about when he said the only things certain in life are death and taxes. Indeed, the only thing people hate more than one is the other.