My awakening started about 10 years ago. Long story short, I'm now at the point where I am questioning why I've ever paid income taxes.
I left the corporate world in 2019 and I have my own business as does my spouse. We don't have any employees. Last year we got some crazy notice from the IRS saying we made a mistake and owe them $2800 more dollars. A few friends also got some letters like this. I wrote back and they sent me back a letter saying THEY made a mistake, but we still owe the $2800 and now we owe interest on it?!? I am not joking when the letters they send make NO sense and seem like a bunch of jargon and words smashed together to sound official.
Are the rumors true? Are we NOT required to pay income taxes as citizens? Over 15% of my earnings already go to taxes (property tax and everything else we pay day to day). My spouse and I canceled our health insurance over a year ago because we couldn't afford that AND income taxes. I thought we'd have extra money, but we do not with the rising cost of food and gas and well, you know.
If I don't pay will we go to jail? I've never heard of anyone except celebrities having to do this. I am happy to pay taxes that pay for actual healthcare, children, roads, etc. I have no desire to fund weapons or war. I will fund peace no problem. I donate to causes I believe in when I can.
This may be just a rant, but I am pretty much DONE doing things that don't make any sense. I feel like if enough of us refused to pay taxes on our income it could accelerate breaking out of this matrix. However, it does feel like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Almost 7 years ago, I caught California's income tax agency running an embezzlement and racketeering scheme. I have been trying to get it stopped since then. In my efforts to stop it, I have uncovered 7 more schemes to overcharge taxpayers. I have always paid my taxes and prior to catching the scheme, never doubted that income taxes are legit: https://gwsandiego.net/blog/?p=611
Because I have been fighting corruption at an income tax agency, a lot of people have contacted me about their problems with the IRS (which I know nothing about). I am hearing a lot of stories like yours where the IRS is claiming people owe money when they really don't. It seems like the government is desperate to collect funds so they are just sending out collection notices to everyone.
A lot of people have also sent me info about the income tax being illegal. I am now convinced they are illegal. Since they don't have the rule of law on their side, they force compliance with a big stick. You are right that if we all stop paying our taxes that they can't go after us all, but it will likely be tough to find a big enough group to push back. Some of the group will surely be sacrificial lambs for the rest, and no one wants to roll the dice that they'll be the lamb.
In my case, CA was demanding that I send extra money that the agency knew -- by their own records -- was not owed. They'd embezzled my money and wanted me to send them more. The beat down was so hard that I sent tens of thousands of dollars more than I should have just to get them to leave me alone... and then they embezzled that money and beat me down for even more money...
I will not ever stop fighting to stop the corruption of the extra taxes being charged above the properly assessed amount, but I also am not willing to battle the issue of whether or not the properly assessed amount is legal.