Where's the Word "Liable"?

Anti-tax zealots sometimes lay great stress on the fact that the income tax laws don’t expressly state who is “liable” for the payment of income taxes. The tax protestor will point out that with regard to certain other taxes—the excise tax imposed on liquor, for example—the tax code has a section headed “Persons Liable for Tax,” which expressly states who is “liable” for the tax imposed. (You can see this particular example at 26 U.S.C. § 5005.) There is, tax protestors say, no comparable section stating who is “liable” for income taxes.

Well, there’s a grain of truth to this point: it’s true that the income tax portion of the tax code doesn’t happen to use the word “liable” in describing who is required to pay income taxes. But there’s nothing magic about the word “liable.” The income tax portion of the code requires you to pay income tax by stating that every person who is required to file an income tax return “shall pay” the income tax. That’s in 26 U.S.C. § 6151, described in detail here. When the law says that you “shall pay” the tax, you have to pay the tax. There’s no rule that says that Congress has to use a particular word, such as the word “liable,” to tell you to pay income taxes. Congress can use any words that adequately express what it’s trying to say. The statutory statement that you “shall pay” the tax is a perfectly adequate way of saying that you have to pay the tax. Congress doesn’t have to use the word “liable” any more than it has to use the word “abracadabra.”