There is a world of legal difference between being a "taxpayer" and not being a "taxpayer". So let's look at the law and find out who is a "taxpayer".
TITLE 26 - INTERNAL REVENUE CODE
Subtitle F - Procedure and Administration
CHAPTER 79 - DEFINITIONS
-HEAD-
Sec. 7701. Definitions
-STATUTE-
(a) When used in this title, where not otherwise distinctly expressed or manifestly incompatible with the intent thereof -
(14) Taxpayer
The term "taxpayer" means any person subject to any internal revenue tax.
A "taxpayer" is a specifically defined entity. It is important for you to know if that definition describes you. Here is why:
The revenue laws are a code or system in regulation of tax assessment and collection. They relate to taxpayers and not to nontaxpayers. The latter are without their scope. No procedure is prescribed for nontaxpayers, and no attempt is made to annul any of their rights and remedies in due course of law. With them Congress does not assume to deal, and they are neither the subject nor object of revenue laws.
Long v. Rasmussen, 281 F. 236 (1922)
In other words, the IRS has no jurisdiction over you if you are a "nontaxpayer".
In another case the court cited the specific meaning of the statutory definition of "taxpayer" in footnote #3.
FN3.
The term "taxpayer" in this opinion is used in the strict or narrow sense contemplated by the Internal Revenue Code and means a person who pays, overpays, or is subject to pay his own personal income tax. (See Section 7701(a)(14) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.) A "nontaxpayer" is a person who does not possess the foregoing requisites of a taxpayer.
Economy Plumbing and Heating Co. v. U.S.,
470 F. 2d 585 (1972)
- If you are not "liable" for the income tax, you are not "subject to pay" the income tax.
- If you are not "subject to pay" the income tax, you are not a "taxpayer".
- If you are not a "taxpayer", then you are a "nontaxpayer".
- A "nontaxpayer" is not the subject nor the object of revenue laws.
- A "nontaxpayer" who is not the subject nor the object of the revenue laws is not under the jurisdiction of the IRS.
If a liability for the income tax is not imposed in clear and unambiguous language as the Supreme Court states is required, then you are not a "taxpayer" and the IRS has no jurisdiction or authority over you.
"A person who pays ... his own personal income tax" (even if not required to do so) becomes a "taxpayer" subjecting themselves to IRS jurisdiction. Consider:
Let me point this out now. Your income tax is 100 percent voluntary and your liquor tax is 100 percent enforced tax. Now the situation is as different as day and night. Consequently, your same rules just will not apply...
-- Dwight E. Avis, Head of ATF --
IRS - House Ways and Means Subcommittee Hearings - 1953