Reid is confused by what he means by “voluntary.” Paying income taxes isn’t voluntary. If we earn income we have to pay tax. Now, the U.S. system has what’s called “voluntary compliance.” Prof. Jonathan Siegel describes it:
So what does the IRS mean when it says it relies on “voluntary compliance”? It is referring to the primary method by which it enforces the (mandatory) duty to pay taxes. The IRS recognizes that this is a huge country and there are hundreds of millions of people who have a duty to pay taxes. The IRS can’t follow each of us around personally and force us to pay. The system can function only if most people voluntarily comply with their duty to pay. If everyone in the country simultaneously stopped complying with the tax laws, the IRS would be helpless. It doesn’t have the resources to bring 200 million tax prosecutions. So the primary method of tax enforcement used in this country is the fact that most people voluntarily go ahead and comply with their mandatory duty to pay their taxes.
But make no mistake about it: the duty to pay is mandatory. If the primary method of enforcement of that duty (voluntary compliance) fails for a particular person, the government hauls out the secondary method of enforcement: a tax prosecution. It can go after the nonpayer in a civil action, or seize assets of the nonpayer, or bring a criminal case that can land the nonpayer in prison.
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