My anti-government-war-complex conspiracy theorist friends often tell me that the income tax is immoral because it supports war, and illegal because it was founded by the Supreme Court to be anti-constitutional.  But these guys are either living in a paranoid delusion or making a completely incorrect legal argument based on a historical partial truth and urban myth.

The Moral Argument:  While the portion of our taxes that goes towards "immoral" activities (war, women's health, congressional salaries or farm subsidies) may anger you, it may also anger certain middle tax payers class who feel that a larger portion of their income goes towards taxes for the rich. It's unfair, but it turns out that we live in a democracy and the only way to change how tax dollars are spent is through the political process.  Not paying taxes is illegal and can get you into a lot of trouble.

The Legal Argument:  While it is true that the Supreme Court overturned the constitutionality of an income tax created during the Civil War, the income tax we currently live under is the result of The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution and a 1913 Act of Congress.  So while you, like I, may think that the current United States Tax Code is overly complex and unfair, it is the law.  So pony up like the rest of us and pay those taxes.  Save your conspiracy theories for the Kennedy assassination and 9/11.

For more useful tax myths check out this year's top ten tax myths from Yahoo Finance and Dow Jones.

Photo:Minwoo, Creative Commons, Flickr

Disclosure:  I am a U.S. and New York Taxpayer.  Yes, I pay a higher marginal rate of tax than most Europeans.