Michael Badnarik on Tax Reform Libertarian Party nominee for President

Eliminate the IRS and all individual taxes

A: The IRS didn’t come into existence the day the Constitution was ratified in 1789. The 16th Amendment and the IRS didn’t come into our lives until 1913 - over 100 years later. How did the US government exist until then without the income tax? Since the government was so small, the founding fathers arranged for it to be funded by excise taxes on foreign imports so that American citizens wouldn’t have to bear the burden.

Contrary to what most people think, the money collected by the IRS is less than 15% of the government’s annual revenue, and most of that goes towards paying the INTEREST on the national debt. If we eliminated the IRS, the government would not come to a grinding halt, as is generally believed. So to finally answer your question, I am opposed to ANY individual taxes until we eliminate all of the unconstitutional agencies, and I suspect we wouldn’t need a tax after that.