Income tax on working youngsters, or "Taxation without representation."

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Had a discussion with the SIGO last week, that brought up some memories and a thoughtful question. Bear with . . .

When I was 16, I got a summertime job at a local chain restaurant making minimum wage ($5.50/hr) for some spending money and a little experience. It wasn’t much (~$1800 or so), but I know I paid Federal and State income taxes, because I had to file returns with the IRS and the State of New Jersey. Same thing happened when I was 17. Paychecks were collected, minus taxes, high school was completed, and I moved on in life. . .

Fast forward to last week, when I was (and still am) 46, my wife brought up a question about the 26th Amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing the right to vote at age 18. This led (abstractly) to a further discussion about the the French & Indian War, British occupation, mercantilism, the Stamp Act, Intolerable Acts, and circuitously how the US drinks more coffee than tea. One of the main points of the US Revolution was the denial of British “taxation without representation” in Parliament.

If you’re not a history buff, here’s the Cliff Notes on how it all work out: Brits invade America, Paul Revere rides through Massachusetts hootin’ an’ hollerin’, Yankees decide to “steep” Brit tea in Boston Harbor, Washington dodges ice floes, rednecks beat back redcoats, Cornwallis surrenders, and Starbucks becomes more ubiquitous than McDonalds.

Here’s my question: Looking back to my younger years, I was taxed for two years without a vote. Presumably we’re still (AFAICT) taxing the working youth of the US, but not allowing them to vote. Isn’t this taxation without representation?

Sidebar: I could see a political workaround to this, though–youngsters would make similar percentage deductions from their gross pay, going to a 529* or similar educational account. Instead of paying taxes, they’d be saving for future education.

(*) I think it’s a 529, but don’t quote me on this. . .

Tripler
I need a time machine for my six hundred bucks back.

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There is no constitutional guarantee against taxation without representation. Just ask a resident of the District of Columbia.

3

You were a minor under the care of your parental units who were responsible for your care. As your guardians, they were the ones who exercised their right to vote for the candidate they saw best fit to govern. i.e. As with many other things, your parents made the decision on who should govern on your behalf until you turned 18.

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Foreigners here on work visas also pay taxes and yet have no vote.

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@Odesio two above …

Shame that said parental units didn’t also have the duty to pay his income tax on his behalf. The sheer unFAIRness of teen-hood is something familiar to us all. The details may not be well-remembered now, but the agony of the naked effrontery of it all surely is. As well as the whiny tone of voice used to protest it.

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Or Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands.

Stranger

7

To say nothing of the generations of non-whites who were not allowed to vote, or the generations of women who were not allowed to vote, or the generations of white men who didn’t happen to own land before them. The argument would be “you had representation - you just weren’t allowed to vote for that representation”.

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The revolutionaries point was not about voting but more about apportionment. The taxes were going to benefit England, not the colonies. Decisions about the laws and conduct of the colonies were made in England.

It was less about one man one vote, it was more about not being administered and robbed by a foreign power.

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Did you decide whether you had to go to school or did you complain that you didn’t have a vote on the matter? If you did complain, where did that get you?

As said, the whole parents (or other legally designated people) are responsible for minors thing comes up in thousands of ways every day of a minors’ life. It’s baked into the legal system. The same legal system that gives legislatures and courts the right to decide whether you can be married at the age of 13 or be allowed to work in a meatpacking plant at 14. The same legal system also gets to have lots to say about your life after you turn 18, like that you can’t buy alcohol until you’re 21, or that you can’t have an abortion even if you’re 80 and pregnant. If you don’t like any of those things, get your parents to vote people into office who will change them. It could happen, theoretically. Theory rules over practice.

Anyway, the short answer is to go live in Puerto Rico or one of the other territories. No representation, no federal income tax on income earned there. DC residents do pay taxes because Congress controls the Federal District. True, DC residents don’t get to vote for Congress, but that’s okay because. Just because. And you think you have complaints.

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What’s the law about when events are so weird you can’t tell if the account of them is satire or reporting? I feel that way about this post. I hope it is satire.

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When I was taught in grade school that “taxation without representation” was a grave injustice against the colonists, I always assumed that, in contrast, all British citizens were represented.

It wasn’t until much later that I learned that most of them weren’t. And that they were taxed more heavily than the colonists were. And that some of the taxes were to pay for defending the colonies against the French and Indians.

It was the start of unlearning a lot of what I’d learned.

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My post is as satirical as the OP.

How’s that for a sphynx-like pronouncement? :grin:

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Green card holders not only pay US taxes even though they cannot vote, they must report ( and possibly pay taxes on) their world-wide income , just like a citizen.

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One favorite way of raising taxes without ticking off the voters is to impose taxes on hotels, car rentals, etc. “Vistor taxes” are often ridiculously high.