Are you engaged in a trade or business?
If so, do you KNOW what the legal definition of a "trade or business" is in the law?
You can find it in the tax code at 26 USC 7701(a)(26):
The term “trade or business” includes the performance of the functions of a public office.
There is NO OTHER definition of this term anywhere in the tax code.
FYI.
Agreed, I remember him vaguely. Always start with: What particular remedy do you seek? Then you can determine what options to pursue and it won't significantly matter which authority you use because those who study the same laws and truths will agree, and disagreements can be resolved by further study. Is there anything in life you want to change besides keeping tax status correct (and of course being right with God)?
Well, it was during that same time period that Charlie Sprinkle was suing Ronald Reagan as Govn'r of Cali and had Nancy in that suit also, along with a ton of other people, all according to their Offices....
That/those. lawsuits are still active and can still be pursued by anyone who wants to go down that hole....
It's a trick that I've never been able to figure out, but the point is that when someone takes any office of Guv'nr on down to something like City Police Chief, they inherit those Suits, and they all include their Wives....
This is one of those I'm glad I have time to research (and the web is better) because I didn't when it came up before.
Sprinkle claimed that he "discontinued" as if his complaint could be taken up again, but more accurately the judge granted defendants' motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim on 1975-11-14. Here is the docket; so nobody inherits the case, but someone who wants to make a similar case can be reviewed de novo. The general argument that DLs and tags are titles of nobility has a little traction with me but then there's always been both the remedy side and the theory side to build up. On the theory side I could at least argue for right to travel (public roads) under right to associate, and then argue against unnecessary restrictions on that right that may inhere to the paperwork, but I haven't taken that up lately and REAL ID took the opponents' arguments up another notch.
Sprinkle raised several other issues and it's probable that the treatment he got reflected that some of the issues were more sensitive, without saying which. The gold vs. FRN status has been much fortified in the interim since Nixon closed the gold window. I think vonNothaus made some good strides in advancing the law but he was talked out of continuing with the same ferocity he used to show. Tying this into a complaint doesn't help as it needs to be its own complaint, and really that is only done with a broad org such as vonNothaus envisioned.
The point is that, if Sprinkle got close, nobody has been told what he did right, there's no proof that he got remedy, and everyone commenting on it after is guessing just like he was. If he happened to be someone whom the state classifies as "don't bother with", good for him, it happens to people, but it's not replicable. Things that are replicable can be demonstrated and transferred, which is why I focus on those, and authorities who use those to demonstrate operation of the law.
But let's get back to OP. If you were working for yourself and were asked if you were a "trade or business", you'd think it odd to look up the definition and find the above. Isn't it interesting that all who works for themselves in this country are pressured to fill out a form about their earnings that then uses this magic phrase "trade or business" with the context that it's defined by section 7701 above? That's a repeatable, demonstrable fact, and all anyone can do about it is to explain it away, but never officially.
I am neither a Trade nor a Business, I am a Man, I can Own a Business, or supply a Trade, but cannot BE either one.....
Now, looking back, I see that you've now raised eight ancillary issues to OP, namely, "resident", gambling, constitutional money, adhesion, reparations, corrected status, Quade sovereign, Sprinkle suit. None of these relate to the meaning of "trade or business", nor any directly to the income tax scheme as a whole. Perhaps you just want your past research tested and possibly approved.
We must all remember that there are distractors among us who can get easily sidetracked from a conversation about obeying the law into a conversation about an unproven pet theory. When I arrived at Scored 2 years ago there was a lot of talk about the election being an occasion for some such pet theories to be vindicated, which has not yet happened; so at that time I resolved that I would patiently explain when a theory lacks enough support so that we can focus our movement's energies on remedies that do work to achieve all our goals. Since this thread might be consulted for the tax side of our goals, I have labored to explain the distractions at length. It would be interesting to me if your focus continued to be on more rarefied factors unrelated to the tax code rather than on the very interesting revelations about the tax code made herein. But for that reason I asked you a question directly about OP to gage your thoughts.
I've done both, but currently the situation calls for me to make a choice whether to rejoin the Trades or go independent again, and due to the political situation, I stand sort of in Limbo, doing neither....
Leaning toward Trade again....
Good, I always try to speak exactly so forgive my haste in saying "were" rather than "operated" a trade or business.
Businesswise, plan that the economy will pick up. Common sense is taking over.
Now the OP point is that if you're working for yourself you might consult 1040 Schedule C line 1 to see that it asks for "Gross receipts or sales". But on the instructions for that form, page C-5, what is the very first instruction for how to fill in this line? The instructions read differently from the form and are determinative! And the law is also determinative and has already been quoted to you.
People then say, oh, if I drew the conclusion to which these facts of the law lead, it would be crazy. Well, yeah, but that's no objection. Then they say you'd get in trouble. Well, perhaps, but the primary reason for that is that most people working for themselves get lots of 1099s and K-1s and other forms that are jurats copied to the IRS, and I've already explained what to do about those. If you follow the law as you read it and as your conscience dictates, you are acquitted before God and always have a route before men. Truth is worth any trouble.
The sovereign balances all his desires and goals for the world. He works where he pleases and accomplishes all he desires. He overcomes all challengers by virtue of his clear conscience, and whenever he does not see the strength in himself he tags his teammate and fellow-sovereign Jesus.