Ron Paul explained that taxation is theft when it concerns transferring peoples’ incomes. The income tax is theft because it redistributes money from some people to others. It assumes that the government owns your labor and the product of your labor. That’s an immoral assumption. Free people own their bodies and their labor – not the government. Therefore, when the government lays claim to your income, the product of your labor and your body, they are saying they own you. That’s morally wrong.
This does not mean that all taxation is theft. There could still be sales taxes, tariffs, user fees and a multitude of other ways to generate income for government. In fact, that’s what makes up about 60% of Federal government revenues today. Only 40% of government revenue comes from the income tax to begin with. The government could still spend nearly $2 trillion a year if the income tax was eliminated. That’s an obscene amount of money on its own and would still allow for a substantial Federal government. In fact, it’s about equal to the standard Federal budget in the late 1990’s.
As you can see, abolishing the income tax is not as revolutionary as the media would make it out to be. It is entirely possible if the necessary cuts to government spending are made. Ron Paul proposed $1 trillion in spending cuts to make that happen. That budget would eliminate the Department of Energy, Commerce, Interior, Education, and Hoursing & Urban Development. Social Security and the VA would be the only programs left untouched. The rest of the Federal workforce would face a 10% cut in employment as well.
That would bring the government back in line with its historical size. The people prospered when government was kept small and the people kept 100% of their incomes. It was a time when people were free.
Ron Paul wants to get back to that time. That can only happen if the income tax is abolished and the beast is starved. And that is only possible once people accept that taxation is theft.