I gifted you nine cents. I'm sticking it to the man.

great article i salute your thoughts sir awesome.

100% upvote from me on this one!!! Resteemed too!  I hope you enjoy my gift to you .  Have a blessed day.

Have 0.3 of a cent from me lol. Sorry, joys of being a noob!

good point of view from your side .
and still be enough good thinking .
@kings-empire

I'm pretty sure there are going to be those people that disagree with you, but I believe what you're saying is true. if there were a gift economy in national governments, the nation's citizens would have more control too. They could show their support or disapproval of policy and other government actions. 

Just like on Steemit. If I receive more upvotes on a certain post than another, I'm more likely to keep doing those kinds of posts than the least favored ones. 

Just a thought....

Nice post dear friend @aggroed

This feels directly related to my series of articles, so I will respond.

First, the point of my series was correcting the thing you are discussing, for the record. Because I'm seeing a lot of overpayment too.

Second, this:

*"So, I'm publicly declaring that any upvote from me is a gift"*

Won't hold up for even a second in any court and is not a viable strategy. Do not use it. You don't get to decide what a taxable gift is. Otherwise, nobody would need to pay income tax as we'd all have such benevolence from our employers, gifting us all the time. The IRS can easily prove that "work" went into any comment that can be upvoted, if they choose to call this income.

The most obvious hole in your gift suggestion is YOU do not give the gift, the blockchain does. You can't declare something a gift that doesn't come FROM you. You are merely the assigner of value, you do not PROCESS the transaction.

You would literally be better off just declaring nothing and trying to tax evade than use this argument.

Now, a direct SBD transfer from your account, that could be argued to be a gift.

I'm not saying your LOGIC is bad, but the courtroom is not based on logic but on "precedent".

Philosophically, I agree with the majority of what you are saying. However, I continue to LOL at the idea of private roads.

Yeah, I *totally* want TimeWarner Cable running the toll booth on the GWB.

![Cable Company.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmToGPuMPfQKtXafMnvyhwLJGEKKAmFqiGafbJtcy53Wvv/Cable%20Company.jpg)

The changes you seek would be better sought with the sword than with the pen.

My 100% upvote is a gift to you, you are free to declare it for tax purpose(or not), it is up to you:)

I 100% agree.   Every upvote is a gift.

Sound of sirens* Pull it over buddy...I am from the spelling enforcement department...Do you know what you did back there? You spelled the word "my" wrong...There is no "UH" in the word "MY".
Let me see your drivers license and registration please...(pulling up belt)

![Screen Shot 2017-07-26 at 11.38.15 AM.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQXzLVxMAe3Df4YycNthw3cKqVU33pqi5Pnq1X4Wid22h/Screen%20Shot%202017-07-26%20at%2011.38.15%20AM.png)

Yes taxes are gifts to goverments.

But seriously, voluntarism must involve the possibility of rejecting the contract. Since the contract is explicitly tied to location, and every location is under some sort of contract, it's no longer possible to pretend that these contracts are voluntary. Personally, I think the one in the US is the least terrible of the available options, but I don't argue with people that tell me about Belize.

I cannot opt out, therefore it is not voluntary. Q.E.D. I can only exchange one contract for another. I cannot write a new contract and ask for voluntary subscribers, like I could by forming a service organization to compete with Rotary or Lions. I cannot even alter the terms of the contract by refusing to comply, buying out, and writing a new one. If I don't like the contract--written by others, without my consent--that's too bad. I get it anyway. If that's not outright theft, I don't know a better word for it.

You're so right and I appreciate every gift I recieve :)

If the IRS does demand taxes be paid on steem earnings, I bet they will demand payment in US$.

So, I would have to set up an exchange and a bank account just so that I could pay them.  That is completely onerous.

Also, why is a corporation out of the City of London demanding payment in US$?

Well, it's for sure morally correct, probably not court wise ^^

I've dealt with the IRS and taxes ***are*** wrong, but:

>Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills.

Which leads to the theoretical question of who would get to keep the Steem after the people with guns and prisons seize someones witness node for back taxes?

I once tore into someone for saying he "had your back" @aggroed.

I'm not sure what you can do to help someone who ends up in trouble with the IRS because you "publicly declared" they don't have to pay taxes on "gifts" from you.

I am pretty sure I have gived a Gift few seconds ago ;) Like the way you think, I also think Tax is a theft...

Giving the IRS any credibility in this situation will only serve to empower them. In my opinion, they have no jurisdiction on the blockchain and since the internet is not a navel vessel as we are considered, only we have jurisdiction. This is our blockchain if we own one or if we own 2billion vests, that makes us the owners of it. Anyone letting the rats on our steemship should be tossed overboard. I do not consider what I get from here as income, I do not tell people I am a professional blogger. I am an Uber driver and I don't share that with the feds either. They earned nothing from me so they get nothing from me. Hang the law! I be a pirate!

And we always love and appreciated the gifts of the PAL president :-)

Taxation is worse than theft. A thief takes your property and leaves. The state takes your property and then invests it in ways to steal more and more, increasing the theft all the time. My taxes have never gone down, only up, up, up. Every single statist should be exiled from humanity, they are dangerous.

very nice topic ................................................like  it

hahaha yes!!! I'm also declaring all my upvotes as gifts to you! :) Taxes suck. :( Every year when it hits tax time, I always have to pay so much! It's crazy to me. 

Great post, great read!

Theft  or not, gifted or not, free or not, we will eventually have to answer to the IRS for it in some shape or form. It's good to start talking about it and debating because we're not in court yet. However, if and when that day comes I will gladly allow you to make the opening statement. Enjoy my .2 cents in the mean time :) love ya, thanks for 🎁

Lots of gift you are spreading today hehe ;)

Yeah this is an interesting topic. Roads can totally be built and maintained without huge corporations or forced taxation. The truth is that people have become entitled and lazy, expecting all things to be magicly done for us. For examlple, why do we have school janitors for high schools in America? I know this will seem funny, but tons of resources can be saved by making these punk ass kids clean up their own shit. They would respect it more, but instead we under pay poor souls who get cracked on for only amounting to being a janitor. Just my two cents. I just put out a new article, totally not related to this but I would love some honest feedback, thanks! https://steemit.com/writing/@paulie2coins/midnight-sirens-ep-1-the-sudden-stop-at-the-end