Showing posts with label Taxation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taxation. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Kevin A Wilson, Gloucester Virginia, Taking Without Just Compensation

Kevin A Wilson, Gloucester County, Virginia, Commissioner of the Revenue, sends out letters to local businesses that have all the appearances of doing a taking without just compensation.  Converting property to public funds for public use without consent and under threat of the color of law.  Here is what county code states; § 16-100. Tax valuation date for tangible personal property and machinery and tools; establishment of rate;  (a) Tangible personal property, machinery, and tools shall be taxed as of January 1 of each year. The status of all persons, firms, corporations and other taxpayers liable to taxation on any such property shall be fixed as of such date in each year and the value of such property shall be taken as of such date.

(By:  Steven Blume)

(b) The rate of the personal property tax shall be established each year by the board of supervisors.

Now, what constitutes a person is a matter of legal debate as it is not what most people actually believe it to be.  See Virginia codes for natural persons.  That area is not going to be argued here today.  "Other taxpayers", is not defined and when the language is not clear, has no standing in law.  So these taxes can only be applied to corporations and the term firm is equally at question depending on the legal status of the firm.  Is the firm a creation of the state?  If so, taxes can be applied.  If not, no taxes are due and the form can be ignored.  If you have a business, if it is not a creation of the state as in an incorporation, S corporation, C corporation, etc, then you are a creation of the state and hence a franchise of the state and subject to taxation.  If you are a sole proprietor, or sole owner, or the business is privately owned, you are not subject to this tax for the following reason in our opinion.  But please, do the research and take the laws here we present into your considerations.

  Any tax on any private enterprise is not legal for the following reasons.  Violation to the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution, as stated, nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.  Ownership of a business is a right, not a privilege.  See Hale vs Henkel, 
linked right here, http://understandcontractlawandyouwin.com/hale-vs-henkel/  Just because you file for a business license, which you are never required to do, does not make you a creation of the state.  It is simply a registration not a creation.

  So why wouldn't the taxes apply to a private business?  Simple, it constitutes a taking without just compensation as stated in the 5th Amendment as shown above.  The 14th Amendment strengthens this considerably.  Section one of the 14th Amendment reads in part as follows; No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.  Again, what the county is doing to some of it's citizens is a direct violation of the US Constitution as well as the Virginia Constitution which reads pretty much the same way.  Is the county making this clear?  No.  It needs to.  Again, what the county is doing to the private citizen is taking your property, converting it to taxes for public use and it is doing so without just compensation to you.  If you have been paying any of these bills, I would demand all of my money back with interest, or sue the Commissioner of Revenue for failure to convey this information.  But again, you can not be a creation of the state or a state franchise and sue or demand money back.

  Stand up for your rights or just pay what you do not owe.  It's up to you.  I am just telling you what I see as injustice here and giving you the laws as I know them.  You are free to buy into the socialist system the government has over layered on us.  I for one am not going to buy it.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Anti Federalist Papers No. 35 – Federal Taxing Power Must Be Restrained

Mr. Chairman, whether the Constitution be good or bad, the present clause [Article 1, Section 2] clearly discovers that it is a national government, and no longer a Confederation. I mean that clause which gives the first hint of the general government laying direct taxes. The assumption of this power of laying direct taxes does, of itself, entirely change the confederation of the states into one consolidated government. This power, being at discretion, unconfined, and without any kind of control, must carry every thing before it. The very idea of converting what was formerly a confederation to a consolidated government is totally subversive of every principle which has hitherto governed us. This power is calculated to annihilate totally the state governments. Will the people of this great community [Virginia] submit to be individually taxed by two different and distinct powers? Will they suffer themselves to be doubly harassed? These two concurrent powers cannot exist long together; the one will destroy the other. The general government being paramount to, and in every respect more powerful than the state governments, the latter must give way to the former. . . .

Requisitions [under the Articles of Confederation] have been often refused, sometimes from an impossibility of complying with them; often from that great variety of circumstances which retards the collection of moneys; and perhaps sometimes from a wilful design of procrastinating. But why shall we give up to the national government this power, so dangerous in its nature, and for which its members will not have sufficient information? Is it not well known that what would be a proper tax in one state would be grievous in another? The gentleman who has favored us with a eulogium in favor of this system [Wilson C. Nicholas], must, after all the encomiums he has been pleased to bestow upon it, acknowledge that our federal representatives must be unacquainted with the situation of their constituents. Sixty-five members cannot possibly know the situation and circumstances of all the inhabitants of this immense continent. When a certain sum comes to be taxed, and the mode of levying to be fixed, they will lay the tax on that article which will be most productive and easiest in the collection, without consulting the real circumstances or convenience of a country, with which, in fact, they cannot be sufficiently acquainted.

The mode of levying taxes is of the utmost consequence; and yet here it is to be determined by those who have neither knowledge of our situation, nor a common interest with us, nor a fellow-feeling for us. The subject of taxation differs in three fourths, nay, I might say with truth, in four fifths of the states. If we trust the national government with an effectual way of raising the necessary sums, it is sufficient: everything we do further is trusting the happiness and rights of the people. Why, then, should we give up this dangerous power of individual taxation? Why leave the manner of laying taxes to those who, in the nature of things, cannot be acquainted with the situation of those on whom they are to impose them, when it can be done by those who are well acquainted with it?

If, instead of giving this oppressive power, we give them such an effectual alternative as will answer the purpose, without encountering the evil and danger that might arise from it, then I would cheerfully acquiesce; and would it not be far more eligible? I candidly acknowledge the inefficacy of the Confederation; but requisitions have been made which were impossible to be complied with - requisitions for more gold and silver than were in the United States. If we give the general government the power of demanding their quotas of the states, with an alternative of laying direct taxes in case of non-compliance, then the mischief would be avoided. And the certainty of this conditional power would, in all human probability, prevent the application, and the sums necessary for the Union would be then laid by the states, by those who know how it can best be raised, by those who have a fellow-feeling for us. Give me leave to say, that the sum raised one way with convenience and ease, would be very oppressive another way. Why, then, not leave this power to be exercised by those who know the mode most convenient for the inhabitants, and not by those who must necessarily apportion it in such manner as shall be oppressive? . . .

An indispensable amendment . . . is, that Congress shall not exercise the power of raising direct taxes till the states shall have refused to comply with the requisitions of Congress. On this condition it may be granted; but I see no reason to grant it unconditionally, as the states can raise the taxes with more ease, and lay them on the inhabitants with more propriety, than it is possible for the general government to do. If Congress hath this power without control, the taxes will be laid by those who have no fellow-feeling or acquaintance with the people. This is my objection to the article now under consideration. It is a very great and important one. I therefore beg gentlemen to consider it. Should this power be restrained, I shall withdraw my objections to this part of the Constitution; but as it stands, it is an objection so strong in my mind, that its amendment is with me a sine qua non of its adoption. I wish for such amendments, and such only, as are necessary to secure the dearest rights of the people. . . .



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Friday, December 20, 2013

Anti Federalist Papers No. 34 – The Problem Of Concurrent Taxation

I never will give up the power of direct taxation but for a scourge. I am willing to give it conditionally; that is, after non-compliance with requisitions. I will do more, sir, and what I hope will convince the most skeptical man that I am a lover of the American Union - that, in case Virginia shall not make punctual payment, the control of our custom-houses, and the whole regulation of trade, shall be given to Congress, and that Virginia shall depend on Congress even for passports, till Virginia shall have paid the last farthing, and furnished the last soldier. Nay, sir, there is another alternative to which I would consent; even that they should strike us out of the Union, and take away from us all federal privileges, till we comply with federal requisitions: but let it depend upon our own pleasure to pay our money in the most easy manner for our people. Were all the states, more terrible than the mother country, to join against us, I hope Virginia could defend herself; but, sir, the dissolution of the Union is most abhorrent to my mind.

 The first thing I have at heart is American liberty; the second thing is American union; and I hope the people of Virginia will endeavor to preserve that union. The increasing population of the Southern States is far greater than that of New England; consequently, in a short time, they will be far more numerous than the people of that country. Consider this, and you will find this state more particularly interested to support American liberty, and not bind our posterity by an improvident relinquishment of our rights. I would give the best security for a punctual compliance with requisitions; but I beseech gentlemen, at all hazards, not to give up this unlimited power of taxation. . . .

In this scheme of energetic government, the people will find two sets of Taxgatherers - the state and the federal sheriffs. This, it seems to me, will produce such dreadful oppression as the people cannot possibly bear. The federal sheriff may commit what oppression, make what distresses, he pleases, and ruin you with impunity; for how are you to tie his hands? Have you any sufficiently decided means of preventing him from sucking your blood by speculations, commissions, and fees? Thus thousands of your people will be most shamefully robbed: our state sheriffs, those unfeeling blood-suckers, have, under the watchful eye of our legislature, committed the most horrid and barbarous ravages on our people. It has required the most constant vigilance of the legislature to keep them from totally ruining the people; a repeated succession of laws has been made to suppress their iniquitous speculations and cruel extortions; and as often has their nefarious ingenuity devised methods of evading the force of those laws: in the struggle they have generally triumphed over the legislature.

 It is a fact that lands have been sold for five shillings, which were worth one hundred pounds: if sheriffs, thus immediately under the eye of our state legislature and judiciary, have dared to commit these outrages, what would they not have done if their masters had been at Philadelphia or New York? If they perpetrate the most unwarrantable outrage on your person or property, you cannot get redress on this side of Philadelphia or New York; and how can you get it there? If your domestic avocations could permit you to go thither, there you must appeal to judges sworn to support this Constitution, in opposition to that of any state, and who may also be inclined to favor their own officers. When these harpies are aided by excisemen, who may search, at any time, your houses, and most secret recesses, will the people bear it?

 If you think so, you differ from me. Where I thought there was a possibility of such mischiefs, I would grant power with a niggardly hand; and here there is a strong probability that these oppressions shall actually happen. I may be told that it is safe to err on that side, because such regulations may be made by Congress as shall restrain these officers, and because laws are made by our representatives, and judged by righteous judges: but, Sir, as these regulations may be made, so they may not; and many reasons there are to induce a belief that they will not, I shall therefore be an infidel on that point till the day of my death.

Patrick Henry
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