Are federal income taxes voluntary?

Tax misinformation is enjoying a fresh resurgence — and people are winning free tickets to vacation at Club Fed as a result.

You’ll never go broke betting on the gullibility of TikTok users.
— P.T. Barnum

The Boston Tea Party (1773)

Many in the community of conspiracy theorists, survivalists, sovereign citizens, and populists have long believed that federal income taxes are not actually required by any established law, and thus paying them is optional. For a fair sample, scroll through some of the comments on this TikTok video:

Regardless we all need to stop paying taxes anyway. File Exempt and do not file.

Haven’t paid taxes since 2015 and no problems, taxes are voluntary by title 26, sec 601 and 602. All you gotta do is let the IRS know you’re not gonna be volunteering anymore and they actually honor it

The IRS is a scam and will be dismantled in 2026.

TAXES ARE VOLUNTARY!!!!!!!!

I’m in. Taxation without representation. Take back out country.

The Federal Reserve Banking Cartel Was the Biggest Pyramid Scam in American History.

It never ceases me how people who get so much of their information from the Internet also fail to use the Internet to learn anything for themselves. It’s super trivial to do one Google search and learn that the federal income tax is not optional and has the full force of the law behind it. Heck, the very first search result you’re likely to get is this explainer from the Tax Defense Network.

Even in its original form as ratified, the US Constitution grants Congress the power to levy taxes:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.¹

When the Civil War came around, Congress passed the Revenue Acts of 1861 and 1862 which established the Office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue (later rebranded the Internal Revenue Service), and a 3% income tax was enacted to pay for the war effort. Long story short, disputes over details of how this should work were settled with the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment (1913):

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

— and Bob’s your uncle. The federal government has the right to levy income tax on you. There’s nothing illegal or voluntary about it.

The idea that paying taxes is “voluntary” — in the sense that you can legally opt out and not pay a dime — is entirely false, and rooted in a misinterpretation of the word voluntary in the Treasury Regulations:

The Internal Revenue Service develops forms and instructions that explain the requirements of the Internal Revenue Code and regulations. The Service distributes the forms and instructions to help taxpayers comply with the law. The tax system is based on voluntary compliance, and the taxpayers complete and return the forms with payment of any tax owed.²

The IRS very clearly explains here (and in lots of other places) what “voluntary” means. Filing your tax return is voluntary; paying what you owe is not. If you don’t file, and the IRS calculates that you owe more than your employer deducted from your paycheck — well, you’re guilty of tax evasion. For many people, filing a return gives you the opportunity to take any deductions you’re due, something the IRS won’t do for you if you make them calculate what you owe.

So, pay your taxes — and don’t listen to hopeful populists who don’t do their homework.

PS: I’m not saying that an income tax makes good economic sense. Most economists from across the political spectrum oppose it, as explained in this Planet Money episode from NPR. Perhaps we’ll have more on that later.

1. Article I, Section 8, Clause 1.

2. 26 C.F.R. § 601.602(a)