“Tax is theft, the best way to combat it is to understand every legal deduction you can take or create”.

Let me be clear about two very important things before I continue in this article.

1.  This is not going to be anything about how personal income tax is unconstitutional. While I actually believe it is, right now if you don’t pay it you get in a lot of trouble, you must pay all your legal tax obligations.

2.  I am not a tax expert or a financial adviser. This article is more about exactly how to think about taxes then the specifics of how to reduce them.

Cutting to the chase on this let me say when it comes to income taxes you should either learn the system or hire a damn good accountant to work the system for you.

The bigger issue is, why exactly is minimizing all taxation a “survivalist topic”? I know it doesn’t sound like typical survivalism, but it is a fundamental part of my 12-part modern survival philosophy for a very good reason. Survivalists are not the people living in bunkers that the media makes them out to be. Above all their primary goals revolve around self sufficiency. When you pay taxes there are two factors at play that reduce your self sufficiency and in fact increase dependency upon government.

The first one is really easy to understand. While you are working on developing a self sufficient lifestyle in today’s world you need money. Unless you plan on living on the street there is just no way around this. Hence you probably work for a living, be it as an employee or an entrepreneur matters not, you do work and in return you get money. Each dollar earned can then be leveraged to improve your self sufficiency, get rid of or avoid debt, purchase long term assets, etc. Hence, every dollar you must then pay as tax is no longer available to you. Again this factor is very easy to understand and most people snap right to it.

The second method of increased dependency is far more insidious and many fail to grasp it at least at first. When a government (federal, state, local) taxes you in any way, shape or form it isn’t just money you don’t have any more. No, at this point it becomes money that is actually used against you in the form of all those wonderful “government programs”. Your income tax is going to fund federal subsidies and your property tax to fund schools with 50% failure rates.

Of course that is only the beginning; governments seem to weave never ending webs of tax traps once the first nickel goes into the system. Taxes paid to your state are used to build roads. Of course then you have to pay a toll to drive on the roads you already paid for. Those tolls then further empower government and fund more “safety programs” like installing red light cameras which provide more money for more programs. No matter what form taxation takes it always has this double pronged attack behind it and creates even more taxes and fees.

This is why you should be looking to avoid any form of taxation by any legal means you can find. Hence, I am not only talking about good accounting practices with your income tax. I am going so far as to suggest you avoid things like “sin taxes”. For example, if you drink beer or if you smoke you are paying a lot of sin taxes every time you pop a top or light up. Many survivalists are making their own beers, wines and even growing tobacco. My thoughts on this are, why not, in fact I am a home brewer myself. These practices are perfectly legal and funnel money back to you rather than into the tax system.  This approach addresses both sides of the problem all while directly increasing your self sufficiency.

Another often over looked method of perfectly legal tax avoidance is purchasing items online or used. This practice will quite often avoid state sales tax. In my home state of Texas sales tax is generally about 8% once the local and city portions are added in. This means when I go spend 300 dollars to buy an item locally I am not just spending an extra 27-dollars. I am also providing 27-dollars in funding for programs I really don’t want. Hence even if I paid the same 27-dollars for shipping and purchased the item online, I reduce my contribution to my overlords down at the state capital. Better yet I can buy the item second hand, save money, keep the funds in my local community and still avoid funding Rick Perry’s upgrades to the Texas Governor’s Mansion.

Long term believe it or not many survivalists actually will voluntarily reduce their incomes. Some directly while others will use a more creative means, like setting up a non profit to dispose of their incomes via causes they actually want to support. In other words they will support a local group that provides useful training with their surplus income rather then provide tax gifts to people on welfare.

This is one of the more difficult nuts to crack from the modern survival philosophy. The key is just starting to actually think about how many times every single day you personally empower government. Fill up your car, flip a light switch, have a cold one, buy flowers for your wife, super size a #3 at McDonald’s or make a phone call and money flows directly into the coffers of our government masters. Really think about that and you begin to understand how taxes and debt have transformed America from what was the most free nation in the world into a group of fairly well cared for slaves. Why do you think President Bush said to be patriotic and “go shopping” right after 9-11?

I for one have had enough! Every time I think about spending a dollar I ask simply, is there a way to do this with out contributing to the pension funds of our lofty government masters. Many times there isn’t, but when there is I take the opportunity to avoid empowering the very systems I oppose. Further when I do have to contribute out of necessity I make sure the purchase is part of my long term plan for total self sufficiency. My advice, ask yourself the same questions and I promise you creativity and self sufficiency will be the result.


Comments

Survival Tenet #4 — 7 Comments

  1. Hi Jack,
    I liked the article. One method of reducing our taxes a bit is to volunteer for the non-profits we are involved with. When our kids get involved in programs like Boy Scouts, 4-H or out local non-profit gun club, we become certified volunteers and or officers of the non-profit to assist in running the program. Then, all the expenses and mileage for our involvement and most activities are deductible. Our kids are going to be involved already so we would be attending anyways.

    Take care.
    Rick

  2. The IRS is not a Govt agency and needs our permission in order to collect taxes from us. If you never agreed to pay they cant go after you for breech of contract, which is actually what it is when you stop paying. There is no law that you have to pay but once you do agree by signing that first W? your stuck UNLESS you go to the IRS and demand a BEN form. Thats the form needed to revoke your signature and its perfectly legal. They removed them from online and play stupid on the phone, best to down there yourself and make copies and hand them out. Ive spoken to Accountants who dont know anything about this so dont be surprised if yours doesnt

    • You are a moron, a certified idiot! Enjoy your jail cell and say high to Edward Schiff while you are in it.

      • Well, that escalated quickly. Was there a need to speak that harshly to him? If he wants to go to jail, let him. Isn’t that what your podcast is all about? Liberty and freedom? It’s his choice to be stupid, it’s also your choice to be mean. Choose wisely!

        • It is my responsibility to provide honest and legally intellegent advice and to point out stupid advice that will put people in jail when some dumbass gives it on my site. Tell you what Stephanie, you run your sites your way and I run mine my way, how about that.

        • Further showing his stupidity this is the mysterious form the IRS hides,

          W8-BEN

          https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw8ben.pdf

          Has not a damn thing to do with no paying taxes or revoking your obligations, it is for people who are not US citizens to claim benefit due to tax treaties between their nation and our own.

          They sure don’t hide it and they sure don’t claim not to know what it is.

          The stupid must be called out at once if it looks in anyway legitimate on my site, least it appear to have my consent.

  3. Met Irwin Schiff a couple of times, nice guy in person, but high-level cognitive dissonance. He told a story about being arrested, cuffed, maced, etc. because some alert popped up when police pulled him over. I told hem I admired his courage not paying taxes, but his behavior was too risky for me. He replied “there’s no risk.” I replied “after hearing that story, clearly you and I have different definitions of risk!”

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