U.S. citizens under the age of 18 should not pay taxes.

I. This is perhaps one of the most misunderstood things about a Republic as a form of government. When Ted Kennedy is elected to represent Massachusetts, he's chosen to represent the whole Commonwealth, not any specific segment of the constituency. He was as much my Senator before I turned 18 as he is now that I'm 19. The Constitution specifically envisioned that everyone would be represented even if they couldn't vote - women, blacks, and immigrants were and in the last case are still disenfranchised but they nevertheless enjoy the government's protections. Another key thing are the diminished responsibilities that go with diminished rights. Kids are guaranteed state housing and care when they are in bad family situations, they're protected from having their assets pillaged, they are not legally responsible for the crimes they commit, and there are some crimes which are only crimes when the victim is a child, like age-of-consent laws designed to prevent sexual exploitation of children and drug laws that are stiffer if the incident occurred near a school, all while generally allowed to be a productive member of society. It seems the degree to which the state goes out of its way to help minors entitles it to taxes no more severe than those collected from adults. The most obvious government protection which adults don't enjoy is schooling - public schools are a huge expense which are totally unparalleled anywhere in the adult world and exist solely for the good of children, as do child courts and departments of Children and Families. II. It's low impact on the kid, it's a huge impact for the Federal budget. And the truth is that those social programs do go to help minors - there are tons of children on welfare and medicare, and those programs are available to any minor who might have need of them in the future, and it's inconceivable that some form of Social Security won't be available barring the collapse of the government. Just because you personally don't consume government aid doesn't mean it wouldn't be available to you if you had need of it, which is the entire reason people enter a social contract in the first place. III. If we wanted to, we could give any person residing in the United States the right to vote. It'd take a Constitutional amendment, but it would be possible. There are a plethora of arguments against it which almost everyone in the US agrees with: They don't fully understand or appreciate American culture, they aren't necessarily producing for societal good, they aren't well versed the in functioning of our government, and they haven't been in the US long enough to fully acculturate. These things are all as true of children as they are of residents. They aren't truly productive members of society and by virtue of their lack of education and experience almost none of them appreciate or understand the mechanics of our government. They are part of the society and consume communal resources, so they should contribute to those resources in turn, but they are not qualified to be members of the electorate. Taxes are part of the debt necessary for protection by the state, they are not necessarily tied to voting rights.