At 06:40 AM 7/26/01, Jeroen wrote:
> > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> > Van: Ronn Blankenship
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > Verzonden: Thursday, July 26, 2001 12:34 PM
> > Aan: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Onderwerp: RE: Poll (US posters only)
>
> > >Different interpretation of "forcibly". You read it as "force of law",
> > >while I used "forcibly" in the meaning of "violently".
> > >
> > >I don't consider taxes a form of theft, since no force (violence) is
> > >used to get me to pay taxes; the government doesn't hold a gun to my
> > >head and say "give us your money or we'll shoot".
> >
> >
> > What would happen if you refused to pay?
>
>Don't know; I've always paid my taxes... :-)
Me, too.
>Most of it is income tax, which goes directly from my employer to the state,
>so non-payment of taxes is to a large extent impossible anyway.
Most people in the US who work regularly for an employer also have income
taxes (and others) withheld from their pay. Some people, however, are
"self-employed" or "independent contractors" (or some other term) and so do
not have a separate employer to withhold the taxes from their pay (or you
could say that they are their own employers). Such people are supposed to
file various paperwork and I believe pay their estimated taxes every
quarter, then settle up any difference at the end of the year. Some such
people try to find ways around the tax laws, whether they actually believe
that taxes are wrong or just don't want to pay them.
>But seriously: if you refuse to pay, the government comes knocking on your
>door, urgently asking you to pay your taxes. If you kindly refuse anyway
>(repeatedly), they eventually stop being nice, and call it tax evasion, in
>which case those nice friendly people in blue uniforms will come and drag
>you to prison.
That's pretty much what happens here, too.
I was exaggerating a bit when earlier I compared taxes to theft, but . . .
if you don't pay them, those nice friendly people in blue (or khaki, if
they're from the county sheriff's department) uniforms WITH GUNS on their
belts or elsewhere come and drag you off to prison for tax evasion, and if
you don't go meekly, they will use whatever "persuasion" is necessary to
get you to go with them, so that a sense the government _is_ holding a gun
to your head and saying "give us your money or we'll shoot".
--Ronn! :)
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I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon.
I never dreamed that I would see the last.
--Dr. Jerry Pournelle
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