- 26 Nov 2012 20:30
#14115452
The solution to 1984 is 1973!
I've just had brain wave for a kind of direct action that is particularly suited to Libertarians. It is inspired by the PPI claims that are going around at the moment. PPI for those that don't know stands for Payment Protection Insurance and it is (or was) a financial product sold on top of loans and other credit agreements. Well I suppose someone must have taken a claim to court that PPI constituted a fraud or was otherwise mis-sold and the court ruled in the claimant's favour. Now a precedent is set anyone who claims that they were misold PPI can take that claim direct to the lender and be pretty sure that they can get redress without even going to court as the lender won't have much expectation of winning in court.
Could something similar be done to challenge the lawfulness of taxation? And in the process get some or all of the tax you paid returned...
Some suggestions: -
- Make sure to take your claim to a common law court where the verdict will come from a jury not a judge.
- Focus on one specific tax rather than the whole gamut; it will only confuse the case and if you win the other taxes will be taken care of by precedent anyway.
- If you are in the US don't even bother trying to challenge a federal tax or you will end up on the presidential kill list. Stick to state level or lower to start with.
- In principle tax could only be lawful on a contractual basis (it would be just extortion otherwise) so challenge it on the basis of a faulty contract. You could try to assert it is extortion (and that is what most people believe is the basis of tax) but governments generally use various underhanded dubious contracts to legitimise taxation so that is what you have to challenge first. If you win on that then tax can only be extortion and a subsequent criminal case filing the charge of extortion will be on surer ground once it is established in law that tax is not genuinely contractual.
- Make sure any representatives you use are on board with the libertarian cause to minimise the chance of them 'throwing' the fight.
Could something similar be done to challenge the lawfulness of taxation? And in the process get some or all of the tax you paid returned...
Some suggestions: -
- Make sure to take your claim to a common law court where the verdict will come from a jury not a judge.
- Focus on one specific tax rather than the whole gamut; it will only confuse the case and if you win the other taxes will be taken care of by precedent anyway.
- If you are in the US don't even bother trying to challenge a federal tax or you will end up on the presidential kill list. Stick to state level or lower to start with.
- In principle tax could only be lawful on a contractual basis (it would be just extortion otherwise) so challenge it on the basis of a faulty contract. You could try to assert it is extortion (and that is what most people believe is the basis of tax) but governments generally use various underhanded dubious contracts to legitimise taxation so that is what you have to challenge first. If you win on that then tax can only be extortion and a subsequent criminal case filing the charge of extortion will be on surer ground once it is established in law that tax is not genuinely contractual.
- Make sure any representatives you use are on board with the libertarian cause to minimise the chance of them 'throwing' the fight.
The solution to 1984 is 1973!