President Donald Trump's alarming threats to deploy the military in US cities sparks criticism. Experts warn against using military for domestic law enforcement.
This idea keeps coming up and while it sounds great it has the slight problem that states don’t pay taxes, people do. Basically your suggestion is then that people living in blue states should stop paying their taxes. Now, the majority of those taxes are collected for them by the companies they work for. You can reduce (maybe eliminate I’m not actually sure if you can opt into 0% withholding) how much is collected by your employer by filing out a new W-4 form, if they let you. But even setting that aside there’s the problem that none of that will matter in the slightest when the IRS comes for you with an arrest warrant for unpaid taxes. Or they might just start garnishing your wages, I’m honestly not 100% sure how that would play out. I just know that number 1 rule is you don’t fuck with the IRS.
The states do pay taxes to the federal government. States are some of the largest employers, and they pay federal payroll taxes. Those could be withheld.
Further, virtually all these state accounting and payroll systems are privatized. States don’t pay federal payroll taxes. Officials simply administer contracts to private firms that handle payroll and deductions. And you’re not going to like who the managers of these mega-accounting and payroll management companies supported in 2024.
What you’re asking these officials to do is issue an obviously illegal order to a subordinate who will simply ignore them and report them to the IRS for prosecution.
No court would uphold the federal government, and specifically the executive branch, withholding congressionally appropriated funds destined to states. And yet here we are.
There likely wouldn’t be enough IRS agents to audit that many people at once. There aren’t enough to go after tax cheats when people abide by the system en masse, so if there were a concerted effort to stop paying, they would probably have trouble with enforcement.
Now, I’m 100% certain that the Trump admin would push the IRS to “make examples” of a few unlucky people, and I’m not expecting a large enough pool of people participating in the new viral meme “just don’t pay your taxes, they can’t arrest us all” for it to matter.
To be fair, the IRS has had their budget cut and will be unlikely to come and arrest the people of one state let alone several. Heck if every blue voter stopped paying taxes then there’s about 5/8ths of fuck all the IRS could do about it.
That’s a great point, giving amnesty for withholding tax could be a good way to secure votes, could lead to a slippery slope though …
But given America is a capitalist hellhole, the voters real power should be in their capital, if a provider isn’t giving you what you are paying for them you shouldn’t have to pay them.
This idea keeps coming up and while it sounds great it has the slight problem that states don’t pay taxes, people do. Basically your suggestion is then that people living in blue states should stop paying their taxes. Now, the majority of those taxes are collected for them by the companies they work for. You can reduce (maybe eliminate I’m not actually sure if you can opt into 0% withholding) how much is collected by your employer by filing out a new W-4 form, if they let you. But even setting that aside there’s the problem that none of that will matter in the slightest when the IRS comes for you with an arrest warrant for unpaid taxes. Or they might just start garnishing your wages, I’m honestly not 100% sure how that would play out. I just know that number 1 rule is you don’t fuck with the IRS.
The states do pay taxes to the federal government. States are some of the largest employers, and they pay federal payroll taxes. Those could be withheld.
No court would uphold that.
Further, virtually all these state accounting and payroll systems are privatized. States don’t pay federal payroll taxes. Officials simply administer contracts to private firms that handle payroll and deductions. And you’re not going to like who the managers of these mega-accounting and payroll management companies supported in 2024.
What you’re asking these officials to do is issue an obviously illegal order to a subordinate who will simply ignore them and report them to the IRS for prosecution.
No court would uphold the federal government, and specifically the executive branch, withholding congressionally appropriated funds destined to states. And yet here we are.
There likely wouldn’t be enough IRS agents to audit that many people at once. There aren’t enough to go after tax cheats when people abide by the system en masse, so if there were a concerted effort to stop paying, they would probably have trouble with enforcement.
Now, I’m 100% certain that the Trump admin would push the IRS to “make examples” of a few unlucky people, and I’m not expecting a large enough pool of people participating in the new viral meme “just don’t pay your taxes, they can’t arrest us all” for it to matter.
To be fair, the IRS has had their budget cut and will be unlikely to come and arrest the people of one state let alone several. Heck if every blue voter stopped paying taxes then there’s about 5/8ths of fuck all the IRS could do about it.
If they arrested you it would not be a big deal but what they do is keep on piling on fees and interest while garnishing any check you produce.
That’s a great point, giving amnesty for withholding tax could be a good way to secure votes, could lead to a slippery slope though …
But given America is a capitalist hellhole, the voters real power should be in their capital, if a provider isn’t giving you what you are paying for them you shouldn’t have to pay them.
Those can’t be effectively collected when the government/court is shut down
Its not a paid person that collects and even if the process is not automated enough its again the fees and interest.
I looked it up the last time this was discussed, the IRS can override and put back the withholding you requested taken off.