Peter Schiff isn't shy when it comes to challenging conventional wisdom about taxes—or anything else, really.
On Tuesday, the prominent economist posted on X, quoting his late father Irwin Schiff: “My father Irwin Schiff always called April 15th the real April Fool’s Day, as that was the day the IRS fooled millions of Americans into ‘voluntarily’ filing income tax returns (what he called confessions) even though no law required anyone to file those returns or pay the tax.”
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Irwin Schiff's Radical Stance on Taxes
Irwin Schiff, who died in 2015 at age 87 while serving a 14-year prison sentence for tax evasion, was one of the most vocal critics of the federal income tax in modern American history.
He claimed the tax was unconstitutional and built a national following by teaching others how to avoid it. His books, including “How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Taxes” and “The Federal Mafia,” sold more than 250,000 copies, according to The New York Times, which wrote a sprawling obituary for him.
His argument rested on two key points: First, that the Constitution limited Congress from imposing direct taxes without apportionment, and that the 16th Amendment did not change that. Second, he argued that filling out a tax return violated the Fifth Amendment because any information provided could be used against the filer.
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Despite decades of court rulings dismissing these claims, Schiff stuck to his views. He told a federal judge in 1980, “You, sir, would be the lawbreaker, not I,” after being sentenced to six months in prison for failing to file returns in 1974 and 1975. He later served additional sentences for promoting tax evasion schemes that the federal government said resulted in $56 million in lost revenue.
Peter Schiff Distances Himself
While Peter Schiff has praised his father’s intellectual case against the income tax, he's being transparent in that he doesn't follow his father's example. When asked if he files his taxes, Peter responded under his X post: “Yes, I don’t want to go to jail for not filing like my father did, so I ‘volunteer.'”
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Peter has repeatedly said that the IRS system relies on fear and misdirection. When someone on X pointed to court rulings, like Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., Schiff argued that the income tax is technically voluntary, but practically enforced through threats of punishment.
“The problem is the government goes after you if you don’t volunteer and the ‘courts’ back them up,” he posted. He also cited 26 U.S. Code 6012(a), claiming his father had legal backing for the idea that “shall” in tax law actually means “may.”
Whether people see April 15 as a civic duty or a government overreach, the debate sparked by the Schiffs continues to stir strong opinions.
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