[Baltar]

Originally Posted by RiverFlows

Well, some people uphold that the 16th amendment was never properly ratified ...

They can certainly try to "uphold" that but it's not going to do them much good. Relevant excerpt from Wikipedia:

Arguments made by tax protesters generally fall into several categories: that the Sixteenth Amendment was never properly ratified; that the Sixteenth Amendment does not permit the taxation of individual income, or particular forms of individual income; that other provisions of the Constitution such as the First, Fifth, or the "Missing Thirteenth Amendment" eliminate an obligation to file a return; that citizens of the states are not also citizens of the United States; that the statutes enacted by Congress pursuant to their constitutional taxing power are defective or invalid; and that the government and the courts engage in various conspiracies to conceal the above deficiencies.

These arguments generally contain logical fallacies, selective interpretation of perceived syntactic ambiguity in statutes and cases, and convey a general misconception about the structure of the legal system and the operations of the government.

In another Seventh Circuit case, the Court observed:

Some people believe with great fervor preposterous things that just happen to coincide with their self-interest. 'Tax protesters' have convinced themselves that wages are not income, that only gold is money, that the Sixteenth Amendment is unconstitutional, and so on. These beliefs all lead — so tax protesters think — to the elimination of their obligation to pay taxes."

Originally Posted by RiverFlows

More than 60 million (truely patriotic) Americans do not file a 1040. Why would they get away with it if this was "illegal"?

Are we talking about people who are legally required to file a tax return or just people in general? Not everyone has to do it. If your income is below a certain threshold, you're not required to file a return.

Originally Posted by RiverFlows

How did the US survive without a federal income tax prior to 1913 Why was it introduced the very same year that the "FED"up was foisted upon an unwary public in a very clandestine fashion?

I have no idea why income tax and the Fed happen to have begun in the same year. However, according to the US Treasury's historical account of taxation, the government had no alternative to instating an income tax. People didn't want other taxes to be raised and the federal government was short on money. One interesting thing to note though is that back then, less than 1% of the population was paying income tax. I don't know what the number is now but it's obviously much, much higher.

Under the Constitution, Congress could impose direct taxes only if they were levied in proportion to each State's population. Thus, when a flat rate Federal income tax was enacted in 1894, it was quickly challenged and in 1895 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional because it was a direct tax not apportioned according to the population of each state.

Lacking the revenue from an income tax and with all other forms of internal taxes facing stiff resistance, from 1896 until 1910 the Federal government relied heavily on high tariffs for its revenues. The War Revenue Act of 1899 sought to raise funds for the Spanish-American War through the sale of bonds, taxes on recreational facilities used by workers, and doubled taxes on beer and tobacco. A tax was even imposed on chewing gum. The Act expired in 1902, so that Federal receipts fell from 1.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product to 1.3 percent.

Eventually, the income tax debate pitted southern and western Members of Congress representing more agricultural and rural areas against the industrial northeast. The debate resulted in an agreement calling for a tax, called an excise tax, to be imposed on business income, and a Constitutional amendment to allow the Federal government to impose tax on individuals' lawful incomes without regard to the population of each State.

By 1913, 36 States had ratified the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. In October, Congress passed a new income tax law with rates beginning at 1 percent and rising to 7 percent for taxpayers with income in excess of $500,000. Less than 1 percent of the population paid income tax at the time. Form 1040 was introduced as the standard tax reporting form and, though changed in many ways over the years, remains in use today.