The Quiz:
SCORING
0 - 24% correct: I'm afraid you've gotten your "education"
exclusively from the IRS.
25 - 49% correct: Your heart's in the right place, but you
haven't yet started down the path to knowledge.
50 - 74% correct: You're well on the path, but still have
some studying to do.
75 - 99% correct: You're on the very verge of
self-empowerment...
100% correct: Hello,
CtC Warrior!
The Answer Key:
Question 1: The federal government is strictly limited in
its authority to lay taxes, being allowed to unilaterally
impose obligations:
a. Only upon, and by apportionment of liability among,
the several states;
b. Never upon citizens directly;
c. Neither a. nor b.;
d. Both a. and b., but what do I know? Me, I'm just a
lawn-mower-- you can tell me by the way I walk...
Correct response: "Both a. and b.":
United States Constitution, Article 1, Sec. 9, Cl. 4
Question 2: If I grant you the privilege of using my
lawnmower commercially, I can charge you a percentage of
your gain (that is, I can claim a piece of the action) no
matter whose grass you cut.
True
False
What kind of lawnmower do you have?
I thought this quiz was about the income tax...
Correct response: "True". I trust no commentary is needed
here...
Question 3: I can't claim a "piece of the action" for you
cutting grass with YOUR lawnmower except where I have a
lawful authority to prohibit you from cutting, and you act
only with my permission.
True
False
Maybe
Lawnmowers again!?
Correct response: "True". Again, I trust this need not be
supported by argument or evidence...
Question 4: The 16th Amendment is designed to make all
lawn-mowing "federal-permission-only", or assign ownership
of all lawnmowers to the feds, or both.
True
False
That's the grass-tax amendment?
I live in a condo, and don't cut grass at all...
Correct response: "False". Click
here for some relevant observations.
Question 5: A "piece of the action" tax is what is known as
an "excise" (privilege tax), and isn't subject to
apportionment requirements, but must be uniformly applied
(as in, the same rates of tax being applied to the same
specified volume or type of taxable activities, regardless
of by whom the taxable activities are conducted).
True
False
Cutting grass is good excise!
My tax attorney told me again to STAY AWAY from this
site!
Correct response: "True". Click
here for some relevant observations.
Question 6: The income tax isn't apportioned, conforms to
the uniformity rule, and has been declared many times by the
United States Supreme Court to have always been an excise
and to have remained entirely unchanged in its legal
character by the 16th Amendment.
True
False
Huh?
That can't be true! Think of the implications!
Correct response: "True". Click
here for some relevant observations.
Question 7: An excise can be claimed on the taxable
activities of:
a. Non-resident aliens
b. American citizens
c. Artificial persons (like corporations and
partnerships)
d. All of the above.
Correct response: "d". Click
here and
here for some relevant observations.
Question 8: An excise on taxable economic activities
measured by the dollars produced in the conduct of the
activities can:
a. Apply simply because the "dollars" by which an
activity is measured are really "Federal Reserve Notes",
whether the activity itself is taxable or not;
b. Be mistaken for a "profits" tax because "a piece of
[that kind of] action" can only be taken from the gains;
the mere recovery of expenses is not part of the
"action";
c. Be assumed to apply only to activities of
corporations;
d. All of the above.
Correct response: "b". Click
here,
here and
here for some relevant observations.
Question 9: The "income" excise on taxable economic
activities can:
a. Amount to any part of what a federal worker earns as
such, because all such earnings are realized only by the
permission of the government;
b. Be mistaken for a tax on the receipt of gains of any
kind because being measured in, and typically paid out
of, the dollar-value produced by the activity, the tax
appears superficially to be on the dollars themselves
(or on simply receiving dollars-- in turn this supports
the mistake of thinking that "income" in the tax law has
the common meaning of that expression: "all that comes
in");
c. Apply to no earnings not realized by permission of
the state-- that is, the excise can apply to no earnings
realized solely through the exercise of one's right to
trade goods and services with others, to receive gifts,
to create wealth and do anything else within one's own
powers and authority;
d. All of the above.
Correct response: "d". Click
here for some relevant observations.
Question 10: The "income" excise can apply:
a. To activity of the same sort as could be done without
being subject to the tax (fixing someone's plumbing, for
instance), if that activity is done on behalf of the
federal government;
b. To activity performed on behalf, or by permission, of
the government, no matter where performed or by whom,
even when the liable recipient of the gain only performs
the activity by proxy, through investment;
c. Both (a) and (b);
d. None of the above.
Correct response: "c". Click
here and
here for some relevant observations.
Question 11: The Founders laid down the apportionment rules
prohibiting unilateral federal taxes directly on Americans
in order to:
a. Impose fiscal restraint on the feds, by confining
their unilateral option to a level of burden no greater
than could be borne by the poorest state;
b. Ensure fiscal restraint on the feds by making all
other revenue-raising options directly dependent on the
voluntary participation of individual citizens, who
would regulate the size of the federal purse in
accordance with the general prosperity by each simply
looking after his own affairs (and with the additional
benefit of thereby helping to ensure capital formulation
at the pace and in the volume most suited to the
national circumstances, a balance guaranteed to go
wildly askew when the state is not so restrained);
c. Ensure fiscal restraint on the feds by making
non-individual-citizen-regulated revenue measures
one-time-each affairs, subject to high political
accountability and narrowly scrutinized and only
reluctantly endorsed by the several states which must
bear the pain of raising the tax, and will therefore be
active counterweights to the federal state's size, power
and ambition (with the predictable and
historically-proven effect of keeping both small).
d. All of the above.
Correct response: "d". Click
here for some relevant observations.
Question 12: If enough Americans regain the not-so-long-lost
accurate understanding of the limited nature of the income
tax:
a. The individual prosperity of productive Americans
resumes a robust upward climb;
b. The state resumes its intended role of austere
night-watchman, adjudicator of disputes, and a few other
key, citizen-prioritized activities, having to confine
itself to no more than it has the wherewithal to
undertake (with the people being always able to infuse
revenue into its treasury in the event of crisis or
calamity);
c. All the distortions attendant upon substantial
political influence over the general economy end, and
the astonishing productivity of a free people operating
under a real rule of law is unleashed to the benefit of
everyone;
d. All of the above.
Correct response: "d". Click
here and
here for some relevant observations.
Quiz I
Quiz III
Quiz IV