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One of the many arguments put forth by tax protesters is that payment of federal income taxes is voluntary, a claim based (in part) on the fact that the Internal Revenue Service uses terms such as voluntary compliance in describing the federal income tax system. Since that system is voluntary, the protesters maintain, no one who does not want to pay income tax need do so — anyone who recognizes this fact can simply opt out of paying: Common sense dictates that if paying income tax really were voluntary, that tidbit of information wouldn't be known only to a small cadre of tax protesters while millions of other Americans annually fork over considerable amounts of money they aren't obligated to pay. Indeed, the specious claim about voluntary income tax payment is based upon a misinterpretation of how the IRS uses that word. When the IRS employs the term voluntary in reference to taxes, they use that word to describe the behavior of the taxpayer, not the tax itself. The U.S. income tax system is not predicated on the federal government's determining how much taxpayers have earned, calculating the amount of taxes they owe, and sending out bills for the amounts due. Instead, it is up to each taxpayer to volunteer his earnings information by filling out and submitting forms documenting his income, to determine on his own how much tax he owes, and to make the appropriate payments. But in a legal sense, neither the obligation to file tax returns nor to pay taxes owed is voluntary — those requirements are specifically spelled out in Title 26 of the U.S. Code, particularly Section 6151: The IRS themselves expanded on this explanation, with citations of relevant case law, in their refutation of common frivolous tax arguments:
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