"What Color Is Your Bicycle?" (read story here) is a humorous parable about how income tax got to be what it is today.  Your job as a free person is to determine what kind of "income" you received each year, which isn't hard to do.

Your 1040 return is your legal testimony as to whether or not you Agree with what has been filed about you (by others) or have something to Claim, Correct, Rebut or Pay to the government each year.  Relax!  As Hendrickson says, doing your taxes will no longer involve number crunching, two pots of coffee, a couple of packs of cigarettes and reaching into every cranny for yet another "deduction."

"The scheme is complex and artful.  Because of the limitations of the federal taxing power, the government must somehow create a body of evidence from which to allege that untaxable activities are actually taxable activities before it can assert a claim of authority, or legal interest. Being unable to ... declare that a private-sector individual engaged in taxable activities, the government instead attempts to cause private-sector individuals to legally declare -- for themselves -- that payments with which they are associated involved taxable activities."  (from "Cracking the Code" p. 108)

Simply put, all that we who are NOT being paid by the government need to do "is to claim the return of money improperly withheld, rebut the erroneous assertions of others who have paid us, and correct any improper assertions we have made ourselves."

But, yes, the IRS doesn't enjoy having people know about the reality of the law.  It would much prefer that 250 million Americans remain conned and confused and the coffers continue to be filled with the revenue we are contributing.  Why spoil a good party?  The fact is that THE LAW IS ON YOUR SIDE.  The statutes are watertight, and courts have consistently adhered to them.  So, the least you can do is educate yourself.  Learn about the simple ways to rebut what has been reported about you, and let yourself out of the fog.  If millions of people filed this way ...