Is it true that income taxes are voluntary?

There are a number of scam artists going around the country claiming that income taxes are completely voluntary and that you can choose not to volunteer to pay any taxes. This is absolute garbage and many of those promoters have actually spent time in jail for not filing tax returns. What they are exploiting is IRS language that discusses voluntary compliance with the tax laws by most Americans. What these sleaze-balls fail to mention is that if someone fails to volunteer to file tax returns and pay their taxes, IRS is very willing to use force to take its calculated taxes & penalties. Many people have done time in the slammer and lost their lives after IRS pursued them for taxes that they failed to voluntarily paid.

Other common excuses used by tax protestors are that taxes only apply to employees of the federal government, money isn't income because it is not backed by gold, and that income taxes are not constitutional. These are all bogus arguments that will earn anyone mentioning them in the presence of an IRS employee an automatic $10,000 fine. (Remember that all constitutional protections, including freedom of speech, are null & void when it comes to taxes for the federal government.)

There are plenty of ways to use the actual tax laws to structure things to minimize your taxes. If you become involved with any of the tax protester programs, the rest of your life will be a living Hell.