It is time to repeal the 16th Amendment, the constitutional provision that authorizes the federal income tax. As its critics predicted when the amendment was passed in 1913, the income tax has become "a terror and torment to the honest citizen." It is absurdly complicated, inefficient and intrusive. Overzealous bureaucrats and politicians frequently abuse it.
The income tax has another major fault: It undermines the Constitution's arrangements for limiting government. The Internal Revenue Service simply has no proper place in our constitutional system.
Repealing the income tax would still leave many areas in which the federal government could collect revenue for its proper functions, like defense, while limiting its ability to overreach.