  ==Discussion of Direct Taxes and the 16th Amendment==  The unsigned writer above is correct, and the Third Circuit certainly isn’t needed to confirm that the 16th Amendment is irrelevant to the taxing powers of Congress (a point which I made above). Furthermore, he agrees with my claim that the name of the tax is irrelevant, because any name which Congress might attach to a tax is merely statutory. All statutory law is subordinate to the Constitution because it is the source of the power under which Congress is allowed to enact statutes. I believe that over the years, the Supreme Court has pretty much confirmed the following principles:  1. Within the States, Congress is limited to collecting taxes that are not direct, along with duties, imposts and excises.  2. Since the Constitution was adopted, Congress always could tax incomes.  3. Although the name of any tax is irrelevant to the taxing powers of Congress, because of the limitations in Article 1, “income” as defined for use within the States can only be something on which an indirect tax can be laid and collected.  4. The 16th Amendment did not affect that authority. It merely superseded the principle decided in Pollock that indirect taxes laid on the profits derived from real property must be apportioned, so that Congress could again tax corporate profits. (Significantly, the holding that such taxes are labeled as being “direct” has not been overturned, allowing these “special” direct taxes to be laid and collected without apportionment yet today.)  4. Article 1 controls the application of the 16th Amendment.  5. Since Article 1 allows the federal government to lay and collect only indirect taxes within the States, the subject of any tax under the purview of the 16th Amendment can only be that on which an indirect tax can be imposed.  6. Indirect taxes are those imposed on the profits derived from privileged activities, such as earning profit (interest) on invested capital.  “A tax laid upon the happening of an event, as distinguished from its tangible fruits, is an indirect tax[.]”— Tyler v. U.S., 281 U.S. 497, 502 (1930)   “‘Direct taxes bear immediately upon persons, upon the possession and enjoyments of rights; indirect taxes are levied upon the happening of an event or an exchange.’”—Knowlton v. Moore, 178 U.S. 41, 47 (1900)   7. Direct taxes, therefore, are taxes which are not indirect, and include those imposed on the possession of property.  8. Congress has not enacted an indirect tax (excise) on either the activity of generating money (laboring, or working for hire) or on the event of transferring property (money) from employer to employee, such that the only tax left is a tax on the tangible fruits (the money which was exchanged for the labor).  9. Money is property. Whether it is also called “income” is irrelevant.  10. A tax on property (whether real or personal) is a direct tax.  11. Such a tax is prohibited by Article 1.  Confirming that it is the effect of the tax which controls into which class a particular tax falls and not its name, the Supreme Court said:  “The power to tax is the one great power upon which the whole national fabric is based. It is as necessary to the existence and prosperity of a nation as is the air he breathes to the natural man. It is not only the power to destroy, but it is also the power to keep alive.  This necessary authority is given to congress by the constitution. It has power from that instrument to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, in order to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare; and the only constitutional restraint upon the power is that all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States, and that no capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration directed to be taken, and no tax or duty can be laid on articles exported from any state. Const. art. 1, 8, and section 9, subds. 4, 5. As thus guarded, the whole power of taxation rests with congress.  The commands of the constitution in this, as in all other respects, must be obeyed. Direct taxes must be apportioned, while indirect taxes must be uniform throughout the United States. But, while yielding implicit obedience to these constitutional requirements, it is no part of the duty of this court to lessen, impede, or obstruct the exercise of the taxing power by merely abstruse and subtle distinctions as to the particular nature of a specified tax, where such distinction rests more upon the differing theories of political economists than upon the practical nature of the tax itself.  In deciding upon the validity of a tax with reference to these r