No one likes to pay tax but we are told time and time again by the Government, friends, family, employers that we have to pay tax. Well, it looks like the cat is out of the bag regarding this issue. Ask yourself this question - in all of the jobs that you have worked in over the years, has anyone or any of your employers ever showed you the law that explains why there is a percentage of money taken out of your salary and given to the Government? No, me either. I have never seen or have never been shown the law that states categorically that we have to pay tax on our earnings. Now I am aware that there is a law that states that you have to pay tax on corporate profits, but not even Inland Revenue staff can find the law that states we have to pay tax on our earnings. Even if you ring up the Inland Revenue and ask them, they will not be able to give you the law, which some people have done.

Josephine Feehily who is/was the chairman of the Inland Revenue Commission (she is now stepping down from her role since joining the Inland Revenue in 1993), released a paper she prepared for the McGill Summer School stating "In a representative democracy such as Ireland, the state rules by consent". She also says "In a country which rules by consent, I believe that to tax by consent". She also states "The Local Property Tax experience leads me to the final observation I would like to make - or perhaps it leads me back to the start. We tax by consent".

Now maybe Josephine Feehily has been forced to step down from her role as she actually has this paper on the Inland Revenue website (Download the full PDF Document 5.34MB) and the Government found out and sacked Josephine. Can you imagine if it turns out that successive Governments have been taking tax on our earnings all this time and it was not mandatory but voluntary? The Government would be sued for billions by people wanting their tax back.

So, is this the case that it is voluntary? Well if you look back at Irish history, after the 1916 rising and all the damage caused, parts of the city and country had to be rebuilt and the economy had to be developed, so a voluntary tax was introduced to help pay for this. Unfortunately for us, the successive Governments "forgot" to stop taxing us when they saw the amount of money that was coming in versus the amount of money being made in corporation tax only, so the gravy train started and in the late 50's/60's, they introduced PAYE which made it even easier to get tax off the sovereign people of Ireland. This has continued ever since.

Now I am more than happy to retract the information regarding the tax law on earnings and the history of tax in Ireland in the early 1900's if this is wrong, but there is one caveat. The person must have the facts in writing and not just "an opinion".

So does this apply to America? Film maker Aaron Russo (Bette Midler's "The Rose", "trading Places") produced a documentary called "Freedom to Facism" which involved him trying to find the law that states you have to pay tax on your earnings in America.