Internal Revenue Code section 861

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Internal Revenue Code 861, 26 U.S.C.   § 861, titled "Income from sources within the United States" is a provision of the Internal Revenue Code which lists "The following items of gross income shall be treated as income from sources within the United States", for purposes of various taxes imposed by Subchapter N (sections 861 through 999) of Chapter 1 of Subtitle A of the Code.

The Internal Revenue Code (IRC), formally the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, is the domestic portion of federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 26 of the United States Code (USC). It is organized topically, into subtitles and sections, covering income tax, payroll taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, and excise taxes; as well as procedure and administration. Its implementing agency is the Internal Revenue Service.

Among the taxes to which section 861 relates are:

the section 871(a) (26 U.S.C.   § 871(a)) tax on certain items of income of nonresident alien individuals not in connection with a United States business, generally equal to 30% of certain amounts received by such nonresident alien individuals;
the section 871(b) 26 U.S.C.   § 871(b)) tax on certain items of income of nonresident alien individuals effectively connected with the conduct of a United States business;
the section 881 (26 U.S.C.   § 881) and section 882 (26 U.S.C.   § 882) taxes on the income of certain foreign corporations; and
the section 887 (26 U.S.C.   § 887) tax on the "gross transportation income" of certain nonresident aliens and foreign corporations.

Section 861 sets forth a number of definitions for terms used in the section. A particularly widespread statutory argument used by tax protesters interprets these definitions to apply throughout the tax code, with the conclusion that only income described in section 861 is taxable. The IRS and federal courts have consistently rejected this interpretation, as in US v. Wesley Snipes et al.

Tax protesters in the United States have advanced a number of arguments asserting that the assessment and collection of the federal income tax violates statutes enacted by the United States Congress and signed into law by the President. Such arguments generally claim that certain statutes fail to create a duty to pay taxes, that such statutes do not impose the income tax on wages or other types of income claimed by the tax protesters, or that provisions within a given statute exempt the tax protesters from a duty to pay.

The 861 argument is a statutory argument used by tax protesters in the United States, which interprets a portion of the Internal Revenue Code as invalidating certain applications of income tax. The argument has uniformly been held by courts to be incorrect, and persons who have cited the argument as a basis for refusing to pay income taxes have been penalized, and in some cases jailed.

Wesley Snipes film actor, Martial artist, film producer

Wesley Trent Snipes is an American actor, director, film producer, martial artist, and author. His prominent film roles include New Jack City (1991), White Men Can't Jump (1992), Passenger 57 (1992), Demolition Man (1993), and the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy (1998–2004).

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