Originally Posted by
hoglahoo
The Sixteenth Amendment: The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
The way I understand it, Congress amends and approves the tax code everytime the current code is set to expire. By approving the code, Congress passes along its right to "collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived" to the IRS. So when Congress writes a law (the tax code) that says "if you are in chart A, you need to pay" then it becomes law that you are to pay