See: Dems to press administration for ObamaCare sign-up extension, as fines loom
”The official sign-up season for President Obama's health care law may be over, but leading congressional Democrats say millions of Americans facing new tax penalties deserve a second chance.”
What FoxNews fails to note is that Justice Roberts in his written opinion on Obamacare, emphasizes that “direct taxes” are still required to be apportioned. So, if the tax penalty takes the form of a direct tax, it must be apportioned among the States as mandated by our Constitution, e.g., “No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.”
Justice Roberts writes the following in his written opinion:
”A tax on going without health insurance does not fall within any recognized category of direct tax. It is not a capitation. Capitations are taxes paid by every person, "without regard to property, profession, or any other circumstance." Hylton, supra, at 175 (opinion of Chase, J.) (emphasis altered). The whole point of the shared responsibility payment is that it is triggered by specific circumstances—earning a certain amount of income but not obtaining health insurance. The payment is also plainly not a tax on the ownership of land or personal property. The shared responsibility payment is thus not a direct tax that must be apportioned among the several States.”
Having studied historical documentation during the time period our Constitution was adopted to identify the distinctions between direct and indirect taxation, one thing I am certain of. There is a consistency among the founders comments and tax legislation of the time that direct taxes are those assessed to the individual by government, while indirect taxes are costs added by government to things which individuals are free to acquired or reject. Hamilton's brief in the Hylton carriage case which Roberts quoted in the Obamacare case says: 'The following are presumed to be the only direct taxes: Capitation or poll taxes, taxes on lands and buildings, general assessments, whether on the whole property of individuals, or on their whole real or personal estate. All else must, of necessity, be considered as indirect taxes.'
Is the Obamacare tax/penalty not assessed directly upon the individual, as opposed to a cost added to things by government?
Simply saying that the Individual responsibility payment is not a direct tax within the meaning of our Constitution does not make it so. The characteristics of the tax must not be those considered to be a form of a direct tax as understood during the time period our Constitution was being framed and ratified. And to this end, the Obamacare tax is in fact laid directly upon the individual as opposed to a taxable subject matter within Congress’ delegated powers, and as such, it takes the form of a direct tax.
Perhaps FoxNews will take the time to do an investigative report as to whether or not the Shared Responsibility Payment would be considered to be a direct tax by our founders.
JWK
If, by calling a tax indirect when it is essentially direct, the rule of protection could be frittered away, one of the great landmarks defining the boundary between the nation and the states of which it is composed, would have disappeared, and with it one of the bulwarks of private rights and private property. POLLOCK v. FARMERS' LOAN & TRUST CO., 157 U.S. 429 (1895)
”The official sign-up season for President Obama's health care law may be over, but leading congressional Democrats say millions of Americans facing new tax penalties deserve a second chance.”
What FoxNews fails to note is that Justice Roberts in his written opinion on Obamacare, emphasizes that “direct taxes” are still required to be apportioned. So, if the tax penalty takes the form of a direct tax, it must be apportioned among the States as mandated by our Constitution, e.g., “No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.”
Justice Roberts writes the following in his written opinion:
”A tax on going without health insurance does not fall within any recognized category of direct tax. It is not a capitation. Capitations are taxes paid by every person, "without regard to property, profession, or any other circumstance." Hylton, supra, at 175 (opinion of Chase, J.) (emphasis altered). The whole point of the shared responsibility payment is that it is triggered by specific circumstances—earning a certain amount of income but not obtaining health insurance. The payment is also plainly not a tax on the ownership of land or personal property. The shared responsibility payment is thus not a direct tax that must be apportioned among the several States.”
Having studied historical documentation during the time period our Constitution was adopted to identify the distinctions between direct and indirect taxation, one thing I am certain of. There is a consistency among the founders comments and tax legislation of the time that direct taxes are those assessed to the individual by government, while indirect taxes are costs added by government to things which individuals are free to acquired or reject. Hamilton's brief in the Hylton carriage case which Roberts quoted in the Obamacare case says: 'The following are presumed to be the only direct taxes: Capitation or poll taxes, taxes on lands and buildings, general assessments, whether on the whole property of individuals, or on their whole real or personal estate. All else must, of necessity, be considered as indirect taxes.'
Is the Obamacare tax/penalty not assessed directly upon the individual, as opposed to a cost added to things by government?
Simply saying that the Individual responsibility payment is not a direct tax within the meaning of our Constitution does not make it so. The characteristics of the tax must not be those considered to be a form of a direct tax as understood during the time period our Constitution was being framed and ratified. And to this end, the Obamacare tax is in fact laid directly upon the individual as opposed to a taxable subject matter within Congress’ delegated powers, and as such, it takes the form of a direct tax.
Perhaps FoxNews will take the time to do an investigative report as to whether or not the Shared Responsibility Payment would be considered to be a direct tax by our founders.
JWK
If, by calling a tax indirect when it is essentially direct, the rule of protection could be frittered away, one of the great landmarks defining the boundary between the nation and the states of which it is composed, would have disappeared, and with it one of the bulwarks of private rights and private property. POLLOCK v. FARMERS' LOAN & TRUST CO., 157 U.S. 429 (1895)
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