by Chris Messner

Created on: December 04, 2007   Last Updated: April 08, 2008

It's a no-brainer: We SHOULD pressure Congress to repeal our current Internal Revenue Code (Title 26, United States Code), and enact a national sales tax. But WILL we? Better questions might be: Do we DESERVE that kind of control over our hard-earned money? Could we HANDLE it?

After all, America's income tax system didn't become the messy monstrosity it is today in secret, in the dead of night, behind closed doors, without an opportunity for us taxpayers to have our say. Let's face it: Congress does what it does when We, The People, don't make ourselves heard. Clearly, taxpayers are partly to blame for the mess.

Truthfully, when it comes to income taxes, I believe most American taxpayers just want Uncle Sam to take his cut, whatever that may be, and then hope and pray the IRS leaves them alone. And there is good reason for Americans to fear the IRS: Just Google "John Colaprete" for an IRS horror story. If you followed the Roth hearings on tax reform, you heard a few more IRS horror stories.

Another problem is that inertia is difficult to overcome. The majority tend to resist change, even if it is change for the better. The current system works, right? Why mess with it, even if it allows the government to rip us off, manipulate us, control our money? This is what is wrong with the flat tax proposal. Proponents of the flat tax, for some inexplicable reason, believe the pipe dream that Uncle Sam will be nice and merely simplify the Internal Revenue code down to a couple of pages, and allow taxpayers to file on a postcard, while maintaining an "IRS Lite". Anyone who believes that probably believes the moon is actually made of green cheese.

Taxpayers are scared of ending up in Tax Court. Who can blame them? Unlike other criminal proceedings, where the accused is presumed innocent until the prosecution proves him guilty, in Tax Court, the accused is presumed guilty until he proves himself innocent. Yes, it is true.

But the United States Supreme Court has weighed in with several decisions that should help taxpayers become less fearful, and more willing to pressure Congress to repeal 26 USC and enact the national sales tax.

In rulings that still hold, the Supreme Court has ruled that, (1) "Our system of taxation is based upon voluntary assessment and payment, NOT upon distraint." (Flora v. US, 362 US 145, 1960); (2) "The information revealed in the preparation and filing of an income tax return is, for purposes of Fifth Amendment analysis, the testimony of a 'witness', as

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