Americans, both Catholic and non-Catholic, are celebrating the first American Pope, Leo XIV. However, Pope Leo’s ascendancy highlights some problems with the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and brings to light an additional reason why we need to immediately eliminate the federal income tax.
In an article in Tax Notes, the following information was provided:
- Beyond the saving of souls, the new pope might need to worry about saving his receipts — in the event the IRS audits him.
- A preliminary question arises over the treatment of his papal salary. We don’t know exactly how much the pope earns, although it’s rumored to be in the vicinity of $400,000 per year.
- It’s unclear whether the pontiff has chosen to accept or decline the salary, or to accept it and donate the funds to charity. For U.S. tax purposes, a decision to decline salary may not be sufficient to prevent the earnings from being treated as gross income.
- Additional concerns involve the application of section 107 (rental value of parsonages), section 119 (meals and lodging furnished for the convenience of employers), section 170(b) (percentage limitations on charitable deductions), section 911 (the foreign earned income exclusion)and section 6039F (the duty to report gifts from non-U.S. persons).
- Another batch of issues include compliance with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), the Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts Report regime (FBAR reporting), and Form 3520 (“Annual Return to Report Transactions With Foreign Trusts and Receipt of Certain Foreign Gifts”).
- It matters little that the pope is a nonresident of the United States. That’s because he’s a citizen of the only developed country in the world that relies on citizenship-based taxation. Most of the rest of the world relies on residence-based taxation.
- What would transpire if the pope simply declined to file a U.S. tax return and neglected to file an FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts)?
- Would the IRS dare to issue a statutory notice of deficiency? Would it slap the pope with extensive FBAR penalties, claiming a willful violation because he is effective owner of the Vatican accounts?
CONCLUSION
Presently, if you are an American citizen living abroad earning $400,000 per year and controlling foreign bank accounts, you have an obligation to file a tax return, pay federal income tax and disclose information about those foreign bank accounts.
If you don’t report and pay the income taxes owed and report the foreign bank accounts you control, then you are subject to significant penalties.
If the IRS is going to enforce the law equally, don’t they need to hold the pope to the same standard as any other American citizen?
One can foresee someone filing a lawsuit seeking to get the courts to force the IRS to apply the tax laws equally and audit the pope. If that happens, what will the courts decide to do?
Of course, this is just one example of the many absurdities and contradictions contained in the Internal Revenue Code, and why the income tax is so despised by most of the American people.
When you read the information above, you are likely confused and angry that Congress has allowed this abominable income tax system to not only continue but to become more burdensome every year.
Their inaction might be more understandable if there was no alternative that would eliminate the wasted hours and expenses of the present income tax code. However, the plain truth is that there is an alternative that eliminates the burden on individual citizens and reduces the burdens on businesses by over 90%.
This alternative is the FAIRtax—a simple and progressive national retail sales tax on the retail purchases of new goods and services.
In addition to removing the compliance burden on Americans, the FAIRtax also:
- Taxes imports and provides tax credits to U.S. exporters like all our trading partners.
- Eliminates the need for most tariffs.
- Brings jobs back to the U.S.
- Eliminates federal taxes up to the poverty level.
- Requires no tax returns for individuals.
- Clearly shows the federal taxes hidden in the prices of the goods we purchase.
- Creates greater economic growth.
- Brings in capital that allows productivity increases and higher wages.
- Eliminate lobbyists and politicians selling tax benefits that harm the rest of us.
- ELIMINATES THE IRS!
We need to move now and put a stake in the heart of the income tax and the IRS so that they cannot be easily resurrected by a subsequent administration.
Many of you have labored tirelessly for freedom from the federal income tax and the IRS. You deserve a great deal of credit for your efforts to educate the American people on the need to fund the American government in a way that is good for America and returns freedom to the American people.
It is imperative, though, that we don’t replace the current income tax and the IRS with an alternative system that can still be manipulated by the Ruling Elite. We must let Congress and the President know that the best way to replace the income tax and the IRS is with the FAIRtax.
Make no mistake about it. The FAIRtax is a grave threat to the Ruling Elites. It will strip them of their power and their ability to control us though the tax system. Their opposition to the FAIRtax will be fierce and unrelenting. And don’t think for an instant that they won’t use half-truths, deception and downright lies in their desperate attempt to hang on to their power.
However, with the support of this President, we can finally eliminate the income tax and the IRS!!!
Of course, the best course of action is to not only repeal the income tax and abolish the IRS but to repeal the 16th Amendment as well so no future administration can ever shackle the American people with an income tax again.
We must come together and ensure that real tax reform, the FAIRtax, is not subverted by the Elites in D.C.
This will take the diligent efforts of all of us. We need your financial assistance, and we need your grass roots assistance.
If you have contacts that will allow us to get more information to President Trump about the FAIRtax please let us know.
Please email us at info@fairtax.org and we will give you some options on how you can best help us.
At a minimum, please call your Congressional representative and ask if he or she supports the FAIRtax. If so, thank him/her for their support and suggest they become a cosponsor of HR-25 if they’re not one already. If not, ask why not. If your representative claims to be unfamiliar with the FAIRtax, offer to have someone come to their office and explain it to them.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.
THE SOLUTION—PASS THE FAIRTAX!
Why would D.C. pass the FAIRtax and give up this almost unlimited source of donations? The only way that they will is if the rest of us demand it!
Isn’t it time to end this ludicrous tax collection system and the IRS?
HELP BRING ABOUT REAL TAX REFORM AND STOP FUTURE IRS ABUSES
By contributing (investing) $10.40 per month, you help provide a financial base to AFFT. If you can make larger contributions (investments), these will be used not for salaries, as we are all volunteers, but for the needed updates to our economic studies which will be vital for all future years.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.