40% of Americans Are “Lucky Duckies” Who Pay No Federal Income Tax

The Tax Foundation has crunched the numbers again to tell us just how many Americans, and what sort, manage to get through the year without paying any federal income tax:

Tax Foundation economists estimate that for tax year 2004, a record 42.5 million Americans who filed a tax return (one-third of the 131 million returns filed last year) had no tax liability after they took advantage of their credits and deductions. Millions more paid next to nothing.…
In addition to these non-payers, roughly 15 million individuals and families earned some income last year but not enough to be required to file a tax return. When these non-filers are added to the non-payers, they add up to 57.5 million income-earning people who will be paying no income taxes.
Even 57.5 million is not the actual number of people because one tax return often represents several people. When all of the dependents of these income-producing people are counted, roughly 120 million Americans — 40 percent of the U.S. population — are outside of the federal income tax system.

I hope this April 15^th you find yourself among the lucky duckies in this 40%.

The IRS has lost again in its battle to save the long distance telephone service excise tax from the letter of the law.

This battle has now been fought in multiple circuit courts and the IRS has lost every time. They just lost again in the Sixth Circuit. When Secretary of the Treasury John Snow testified before Congress two months ago, he was interrogated by Representative Jim Ramstad:

Mr. RAMSTAD. Mr. Secretary, I want to ask you about a thorn in the side of many taxpayers, and I am referring to the telephone excise tax. As you know, this tax was first enacted — well, it was enacted in 1898 as a temporary tax to fund the Spanish-American War.…
Now, in the past few years, a number of taxpayers, business taxpayers, have challenged the IRS’s collection of this tax in Federal court. In fact, no fewer than three Federal courts and a host of Federal District Courts have all ruled against the IRS. Can you please tell me why in the world does the IRS continue collecting this tax, and can you give us an indication of how long the Government will keep litigating this issue? Mr. Secretary, why not give it up?
[Laughter.]
Secretary SNOW. Well, I think the courts may require us to do that very soon. You know, this is pending in the Sixth Circuit. The Department of Justice took an appeal from the District Court. We are awaiting that judgment. Should the judgment come down in alignment with the prior three Federal Circuit Courts, I think the handwriting is on the wall.
Mr. RAMSTAD. That will be the end of the temporary tax enacted in 1898 to fund the Spanish-American War?
Secretary SNOW. I would think the time to bring that to an end would be upon us.

Don’t pop the champagne corks just yet. First off, maybe he was just bullshitting. Second, this only applies to the excise tax on long distance phone service where that service not priced by the time of the call and by the call’s geographical distance. But this still means Uncle Sam is out several billion dollars, so maybe it’s cork-popping time after all.

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How you can resist funding the government → a survey of tactics of historical tax resistance campaigns → choose a small, easy, high-participation tax to resist → phone tax resistance → the death of the long distance phone service excise tax: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; A group of prominent peaceniks issue an appeal for people to urge somebody else to please do something to stop this darn war. Also: are you due a complete refund of your long-distance telephone excise tax? One New York company got a $400,000 refund, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.; War tax resisters aren’t the only ones attacking the phone tax — legislators are trying to repeal it, technological change threatens it, and someone found a nice little legal loophole in part of it. Still, this Spanish-American War Tax keeps marching on.; The I.R.S. keeps losing in court thanks to a single “and” in the tax code, and this may cost the government billions of dollars. Also: a mention of a hundred-person tax resister community in New Hampshire in the early 1970s, from a back-issue of The Catholic Worker.; More on the I.R.S.’s new W-4 strategy, debates about the size of the tax gap (and some ideas on how to increase it), and the I.R.S. loses in court yet again while trying to close the flat-rate long distance loophole.; Phone tax resistance goes mainstream, with an article in today’s Smartmoney.com advocating it. Also: Just how big is the defense budget? It isn’t easy to tell, but one intrepid budget-watcher crunches the numbers for us and tells us what he found.; The S.F. Weekly does a write-up on the tax resistance of yours truly. Also: it looks like the government is finally surrendering on the phone tax — they look to be dropping the tax on long-distance and cellular phone service, and they may even be planning to send out refunds. If I were you, though, I wouldn’t wait.; Ding, dong, the tax is dead! Which old tax? The federal excise tax on long distance phone service. Ding, dong this excise tax is dead! Also: Karl Jaspers worries about the rise of a Hitler in America.; When the federal excise tax on wireless phone service was abolished in 2006, you might have expected the federal tax rate to have dropped, but today it’s higher than before. How did that happen?
How you can resist funding the government → about the IRS and U.S. tax law/policy → how is tax law/policy/administration changing? → “Lucky Duckies”: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; If only the richest 59% of Americans are paying federal income tax, the U.S. tax system must be absurdly unbalanced and unfair to the rich, right? Not. Also: A Republican senator looks at the mess in Iraq, does a quick 180 turn, and says maybe it IS time for a military draft after all.; The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee is holding its National Strategy Conference in Brooklyn next month. Also: the Tax Foundation says only 40% of income in the U.S. is being taxed, Democrats notice the anti-pork high road is unoccupied, and “Americus” sees his colors starting to run.; More proposals from Dubya’s tax panel, and some are worth keeping an eye on. And the Tax Foundation continues to get all Chicken Little about Lucky Ducky.; The Tax Foundation says that 60% of Americans take more from the government in benefits than they give to it in taxes. And if you believe that, here’s a list of other absurd things you might believe.; I seem to have struck a nerve with my criticism of the recent Tax Foundation study on the redistributive effects of government tax and spending policy.; Can self-employed people avoid self-employment tax by paying themselves in dividends rather than in salary? It appears so. Also: the IRS deceives a disabled veteran into signing his rights away. And: The Tax Foundation ignores its own advice and tells us our “Tax Freedom Day” this year will come on April 30.; The I.R.S. reveals that a third of those Americans who filed tax returns in 2006 owed no federal income tax at all during the previous year. Also: a timeline of the pundits and politicians who have been sharing that light at the end of the tunnel hallucination for the last four years.; The preliminary numbers are out for the 2006 tax year, and once again about a third of American households who filed their taxes paid no federal income tax at all that year. Also: The anti-war coalition group United for Peace & Justice encourages its members to “to nonviolently take matters into our own hands and encourage taxpayers to directly refuse to pay for the war.” And: More on Daniel Jenkins’s campaign for legal conscientious objection to military taxation. Also: How a frugalista philosophy allows you to work for your priorities instead of Uncle Sam’s. And: Sure enough, the I.R.S.’s private debt collection outsourcing program has been an expensive boondoggle.; Dana Visalli shares his experiences with tax resistance and I.R.S. enforcement efforts. Also: a look at which households will be paying no federal income tax this year.; Right now about a third of American households don’t pay any federal income tax at all. How would this change if Obama’s or McCain’s current tax plans were enacted?; The percentage of Americans who will be “lucky duckies” is likely to jump this year. A projected 43.4% of non-dependent Americans will owe no federal income tax at all.; The numbers are out on Lucky Duckies in tax year 2007. Also: actor Craig T. Nelson, a guest on Glenn Beck’s Fox News show, talks up tax resistance among the sick-and-tired conservative set.; An update on the number of “lucky duckies” who pay no federal income tax — this year it’s projected to be fully 46.9% of American households. Also: Pablo San José publishes a rejoinder to Ricardo Rodríguez’s critique of tax resistance in Rebelión.; The numbers are out on Lucky Duckies in tax year 2008: more than a third of tax-filing households paid no federal income tax that year (and 2009 promises to be even better). Also: mothers resist a ridiculous baby carriage tax in Paris in 1913.; The number and percentage of “lucky duckies” who file tax returns showing that they owed no federal income tax all year jumped to nearly 42% in 2009, according to statistics released recently by the I.R.S. Also: “tax day” newspaper articles from years past cover the war tax resistance of Ed Hedemann, Jack O’Malley, Ralph Dull, Rita Snyder, Kathy Levine, Donald Ealy, Bill Ramsey, Jenny Truax, Rebekah Hassler, Tom & Suzanne Makarewicz, and Mary Loehr.; Forbes tax blogger Peter J. Reilly gets inspired to write up his thoughts on war tax resistance. Also: the Tax Policy Center forecasts how the ranks of “lucky duckies” (American households that pay no federal income tax) will swell or shrink in the coming years under different policies.; More and more Americans do not have to pay any federal income tax. You might think this would warm the cockles of the tiny hearts of the folks at the Heritage Foundation, but you’d be wrong. Also: Congress is thinking up some new ways to crack down on people behind on their taxes.; More than 40% of American households paid no federal income tax on any of the income they earned in 2010. Also: updates on current tax resistance movements in Greece and Ireland. And: the I.R.S. drags its heels on giving any payouts to informers who have ratted out their tax evading neighbors and employers.; Frida Berrigan writes up her impressions of the Tax Day protests in New York City. Also: as the baby boomers swell the ranks of the retired, the ranks of non-taxpaying “lucky duckies” will rise as well.; News on the next NWTRCC national gathering, and some reports from the last one. Also: Fyke Farmer refused to pay for the “illegal” Korean War in 1953. And: it looks like most American households get more money from the government than they pay in taxes (even if you don’t count government employees or those who profit from government contracts).; Diverse tactics and grassroots organizing were key to the success of the poll tax resistance movement in the United Kingdom twenty-some years ago.; The latest IRS statistics show how many million income tax filers were “luckie duckies” who paid no income tax in 2011. Also: do I really have to write something about this “sequester”? And, Jack Payden-Travers leads a war tax resistance workshop at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker.; NWTRCC’s fall gathering announced; a report on the BerkShares alternative currency; Robert Fernandes pays his taxes in $1 bills as a protest; lucky duckies are becoming rarer and may have been overcounted in the first place; prohibitionists in Colorado are trying to use taxes to push marijuana back underground; Michael Izbicki shares his decision to begin resisting taxes; and another “suspicious white powder” incident at an IRS facility.; There’s a “Google Hangout” about war tax resistance coming up next week. Also: the numbers have just come out about how many tax filers in 2012 were “lucky duckies” who owed no income taxes all year.; The IRS has released a new set of statistics that allow us to estimate how many “lucky duckies” in the U.S. filed tax returns showing that they did not owe any federal income taxes for all of 2013.; The IRS releases preliminary 2014 tax year numbers that show, among other things, how many “lucky duckies” filed tax returns showing that they owed no federal income tax all year.; War tax resisters to meet in Massachusetts in October. 27% of Americans pay no income or payroll tax. Separatists in Trieste launch a tax strike. An Argentine priest leads a road toll rebellion. A college student invents a chatbot that overturns $4 million in parking tickets. The I.R.S. continues to get spanked for civil forfeiture abuse. Bitcoins may be the next super tax haven. Another irate taxpayer pays his bill with bags of low-denomination money. And more news besides.; The IRS releases preliminary 2015 tax year numbers that show, among other things, how many “lucky duckies” filed tax returns showing that they owed no federal income tax all year.

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