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If you want to understand what a lawful status-based excise tax actually looks like, you need an example where Congress does everything openly:it defines the status,limits the class,identifies jurisdiction,and lets obligation follow.

A clean example is the Special Occupational Tax on certain firearms businesses.

The taxing statute is 26 U.S.C. § 5801.

This is not enforcement.This is not regulation.This is the levy itself.

THE TAX IMPOSED — STATUTORY TEXT

26 U.S.C. § 5801(a) states:

“There is hereby imposed on each importer, manufacturer, and dealer in firearms a special (occupational) tax at the following rates:”

“(1) Importers, manufacturers, and dealers in firearms other than destructive devices—$1,000 a year.”

“(2) Importers, manufacturers, and dealers in destructive devices—$1,000 a year.”

That is the tax.

Congress is not taxing income.Congress is not taxing transactions.Congress is not taxing people for existing.

Congress is taxing a defined occupational status.

WHEN LIABILITY ATTACHES — STATUTORY TEXT

The statute continues.

26 U.S.C. § 5801(b) provides:

“The tax imposed by subsection (a) shall be paid for each place of business for each taxable year.”

This matters.

The obligation:

attaches to a place of business,

operated by a person engaged in the regulated occupation,

for a defined taxable year.

No business → no tax.No occupation → no status.No status → no obligation.

WHO IS SUBJECT — STATUTORY CONTEXT

The terms importer, manufacturer, and dealer are not guesses.They are defined elsewhere in the National Firearms Act, including 26 U.S.C. § 5845, and implemented through regulation.

This means the class is:

narrow,

knowable,

provable,

and limited by statute.

LD ANALYSIS — WHY THIS EXCISE IS LAWFUL

This statute passes every LD test without strain.

1. AUTHORITY

Congress has explicit authority to:

regulate certain classes of firearms,

license and oversee regulated industries,

impose excise taxes on occupations within that domain.

There is no authority gap here.

2. JURISDICTION

Jurisdiction does not arise from citizenship.It does not arise from residence.It does not arise from existence.

Jurisdiction arises because a person voluntarily enters a federally regulated occupation.

You are not born a firearms manufacturer or dealer.You choose to become one.

That choice is the jurisdictional hook.

3. STATUS

The tax applies only after a specific legal status exists:

being an importer, manufacturer, or dealer in regulated firearms.

That status is:

voluntary,

defined by statute,

tied to regulated activity,

limited in scope.

No presumption is required.

4. OBLIGATION

Only after:

authority exists,

jurisdiction is triggered by voluntary entry,

status is established by conduct,

does the tax obligation attach.

That is the correct order:

Authority → Jurisdiction → Status → Obligation

Nothing is reversed.Nothing is assumed.

THE CORE LD DISTINCTION

A real man or woman is not taxed by existence.A legal role is taxed by statute.

Section 5801 governs a status Congress created and regulates.It does not claim ownership over the living.

This is why LD does not oppose excise taxes.LD opposes status by presumption and jurisdiction by silence.

This excise works because:

the status is defined,

the class is limited,

jurisdiction is voluntary,

and obligation follows structure.

That is law functioning properly.

ONE-SENTENCE LD SUMMARY

The special occupational tax under 26 U.S.C. § 5801 is a lawful status-based excise because Congress explicitly taxes a voluntarily assumed, federally regulated occupational status and imposes obligation only after authority, jurisdiction, and status are established.