“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” Shakespeare famously wrote. William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet,” act II, scene 2. Or as James Whitcomb Riley put it, “When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.” Roses and ducks have defined characteristics and 5 functions inherent to what they are, and retain those even if a Legislature or an attorney chooses to call them by a different name. Taxes are often the subject of definitional disputes… This is not just a matter of semantics. Taxes that are mislabeled violate transparency by depriving taxpayers of information needed to make meaningful choices about policy. A good tax system is one where taxpayers easily understand what a tax is and how it operates, and subterfuge about these matters prevents that.
As NTUF has successfully argued before, the tax is a form of income tax, as it is levied on individuals, not transactions. Additionally it would have deductions similar to income taxes and tracks federal income tax filings. Essentially, if it walks like an income tax and talks like an income tax, it should be treated as an income tax.
Click here to read more about the continuing legal actions in Quinn v. Washington