Tax Resistance and the Birth of the American Revolution
On April 18, 1689, eighty-six years and a day before the “shot heard ‘round the world” at Lexington and Concord, the people of Boston and surrounding towns rose up and overthrew the royal governor in a rebellion against taxation and arbitrary power. It was no mere...
Taxing Power: Luther Martin’s Anti-Federalist Warnings
Luther Martin believed the Constitution’s sweeping taxation power was one of its most dangerous features, a direct threat to both state sovereignty and individual liberty. Long before the Sixteenth Amendment and the rise of federal income taxes, Martin warned that the...
Yes, Sales Taxation is Also Theft
A group of House Republicans is supporting legislation that would replace federal income, payroll, estate, and gift taxes with a 30 percent national sales tax. The bill also eliminates the Internal Revenue Service, giving states the responsibility to collect the sales...