Irish Exit
Verified User
True, but the tax is based on the person's wealth (estate). I'm not sure if that makes it different from a constitutional perspective. I think the interpretation of a direct tax vs indirect tax was always somewhat fuzzy and changed in varying court interpretations.
Income is so broadly defined for the purposes of tax laws I doubt it would make a difference. If your dentist traded you a filling for you cleaning out his gutters, you are supposed to report the filling's value as income and the dentist is supposed to report the gutter cleaning as income. Even debt forgiveness is taxable income though few people outside of financial institutions actually report it to the IRS.