The Lengthy Arm of IRS Jurisdiction

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Posted on by on June 26th, 2011 | 0 Comments »

The Scope of IRS Jurisdiction

To avoid paying taxes, protesters often attempt to question the IRS’s reach because of its unclear jurisdiction. To avoid suffering IRS issues in the future, take a look at how wide the jurisdiction of the Internal Revenue Service extends.

Jurisdiction is the power provided to political leaders or legal bodies that allows them to handle legal matters and enforce punishment. The word is commonly heard on television shows or movies dealing with crimes.

The IRS is a little more amorphous because it has jurisdiction over all the taxpayers in the US, as well as people who earn any income in the US. If you don’t understand that you have obligations to pay taxes as a taxpayer, you’ll definitely encounter IRS issues.

The IRS, according to Title 26 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

“The Internal Revenue Service is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The Commissioner has general superintendence of the assessment and collection of all taxes imposed by any law providing internal revenue. The Internal Revenue Service is the agency by which these functions are performed.”

The IRS has jurisdiction over you as a taxpayer if you’re a United States citizen earning money or living in foreign countries, a non-resident earning money in the US, or a resident of the US. If you do not pay taxes on property, earnings, capital gains, etc., you will have IRS issues.

There are people who do not fall under the jurisdiction of the IRS. In this paragraph from the case of Economy Plumbing and Heating Co. vs. The United States, it states that non-taxpayers are excluded from the IRS’s rules and regulations:

“The revenue laws are a code or system in regulation of tax assessment and collection. They relate to taxpayers, and not to non-taxpayers. The latter are without their scope. No procedure is prescribed for non-taxpayers, and no attempt is made to annul any of their rights and remedies in due course of law. With them [non-taxpayers] Congress does not assume to deal, and they are neither of the subject nor of the object of the revenue laws.”

You should determine if you’re a non-taxpayer or not to avoid IRS issues. You can look at the IRS website or on your specific state’s tax website.

Many arguments are regularly made by tax protesters that try to question the jurisdictional powers of the IRS. Some claim that the 16th Amendment was never ratified properly, so the IRS is unconstitutional. The 16th Amendment providing the authority to lay and collect taxes on income to Congress was voted by three-fourth majority so it was officially ratified.

Another argument is that the IRS isn’t a government agency at all, and therefore, has no jurisdiction or power over anybody. This is a ridiculous argument because the Secretary of the Treasury has authority to maintain and enforce internal revenue laws. Based on this authority, the IRS was founded. Arguments such as these can lead honest people to suffer serious IRS issues. The IRS does, indeed, have jurisdiction over taxpayers.

Failure to pay taxes or declare your income accurately can lead to serious IRS issues. If you are a taxpayer, you are under the jurisdiction of the IRS.

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