If you’re waiting for an answer to that question, you’re an idiot. There are plenty of straightforward answers to that question, leading from the 16th Amendment through 26 USC 61 and forward.

Now, I realize you may not like the answer you get - or you may find it convenient to deny that the answer is real - but that makes just as much sense as the NAMBLA idiots who complaint that they don’t understand why child molestation is a crime.

The legal system does not depend on each individual arriving at their own idiosyncratic interpretation of the law - that would be pointless. You may have decided that your life works better if you’re exempt from income tax. That’s really nice for you, but the rest of society isn’t going to come grinding to a halt while you engage in pointless arguments about well-settled legal questions, or grant you some sort of special dispensation from obeying laws because you’d rather keep 100% of your income while the rest of us pay for government.

Tax protestors commit the basic mistake of confusing opinions (or wishes) with facts. The fact is, if you don’t follow the rules of the various tax systems, the various governments will take away your money and property, and potentially put you in jail. You don’t have to like that, or agree with that, or think it’s good policy, or even think it’s legal - but that doesn’t make the tax system disappear like magic.

What’s really sick is that there are people who are cynical enough to peddle this tax protestor crap while paying their own taxes and letting others face giant interest/penalty bills and even jail time. I can respect tax protestors or tax evaders who have enough integrity to stand behind their own nutty schemes - I think they’re making stupid choices, and I think they’re wasting their lives, but at least they’ve got the balls to follow their own advice.