12: Countdown to Constitution Day

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Today's Topic: The 16th Amendment

16th amendment says that Congress can tax income. The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) is the government that collects taxes. Every year on April 15th, millions of citizens and non-citizens fill-out the 1040 Federal Income Tax form and send it to the IRS on April 15th. People must send in 540 State Tax forms, too.

Compare the IRS 1040 to the USCIS N400. Both forms ask similar questions: name, address, marital status, etc. Furthermore, the N400 not only asks about job history (Part 6B), but also asks about income tax:

• Part 10 A 5. Do you owe any Federal, state or local taxes that are overdue?
• Part 10 C 13. Have you ever called yourself a ''nonresident'' on a Federal, state or local tax return?
• Part 10 C 14. Have you ever failed to file a Federal, state or local tax return because you considered yourself to be a "nonresident"?

Did you know that the most important use of a social security number is to identity a tax payer? The SSN not only identifies you as a taxpayer on the 1040 & 540, the SSN appears on your other financial papers: W-2, W-4 form, paychecks, and bank statements.

It is very, very important to keep your SSN safe and guard against identity theft. It is very very, very important to pay taxes evey year to support your local, state, and federal government.

• Breaking English News: Ex-Thai PM’s wife guilty of tax evasion
  The wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been sentenced to three years in jail for tax evasion.
• ESL Discussions.com: Conversation Questions on Taxes Ex: Do you think paying tax is a good or bad thing?
• ESL Podcast 364 – Filing Taxes
  This is the first year I haven’t been exempt or filed an EZ tax return. Ricky: No problem. ... I’d like to get a tax refund, rather than have to pay. ...
• VOANews: Tax Time in America Americans must send their tax documents to the government by April seventeenth. But most will not have to pay anything. In fact, most Americans get money back from the I.R.S. 14 April 2006