Taxation Without Representation

Here's a question: Why do individuals who cannot vote pay income taxes?

I am not talking about criminals who have forfeited their right to vote, I am talking about millions of American teenagers who file tax returns because they work after school and on the weekends to help pay for their cars, social activities and clothes.

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And yes, let's include the teenagers who are professional athletes, actors and musicians who earn millions of dollars and pay millions in income taxes. If you believe in the basic principle upon which this country was founded, that taxation without representation represents a denial of the inalienable right to liberty, then we are denying this inalienable right to a group of our own citizens.

I believe the answer to my initial question is simply that our hardworking teenagers have been caught in our ever encroaching, mind boggling, sticky tax web and they can't get out. And given the curent state of the budget deficit, I would not expect the same Congressmen and Congresswomen who voted in favor of nominees to the Supreme Court who strictly intrepeted the constitution, to exempt teens from the tax rolls.

In 1913 when the sixteenth amendment to the constitution was passed, average annual earnings were $750. Income below $3,000 for single taxpayers and $4,000 for married couples was exempt on the 1913 tax form. This meant that only a small fraction of individuals had to file tax returns in 1913. Today, the deduction for single taxpayers is only $5,000. If the standard deduction were indexed for inflation, single taxpayers in 2006 would not have to file a tax return unless their income was $60,545.

Now some might extend this argument to individuals who are permanent residents and pay taxes yet cannot vote. I argue that they forfeited their right to taxation without representation because they voluntarily choose to become permanent residents and accepted the tax burdens associated with that status. American teenagers have forfeited nothing. Instead, they have fallen into the big black hole known as the Internal Revenue Code.

So, if we are serious about bringing liberty and freedom to Iraqui and Afghan citizens, and if we are serious about strictly interpreting our Constitution, we might take a look right here at home and extend the basic inalienable right of liberty to our own teenagers who cannot vote yet are required to pay income, Social security and Medicare taxes.

Let's Stop Taxing American Teenagers Who Cannot Vote!

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