Is it against the law not to file a US tax return?

IF you earn over a certain dollar amount, then it is illegal not to file. Not filing, when you should is called 'Tax Evasion'.

Many criminals who could not be brought in on other charges were eventually brought down as Tax Evaders. I believe Al Capone was one.
yes it is. They can take you assets and throw you in jail if you fail to comply also add penalties


Answers:
*Chuckling at this* You must file a tax return if your income is above a certain level. The amount varies depending on filing status, age and the type of income you receive. http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=105097,00.html
Mind you though, that is what the IRS says, I doubt they would be very forthcoming to say otherwise.

Taxes were created to pay for wars mostly. From 1791 to 1802, the United States government was supported by internal taxes on distilled spirits, carriages, refined sugar, tobacco and snuff, property sold at auction, corporate bonds, and slaves. The War of 1812 brought about the nation's first sales taxes on gold, silverware, jewelry, and watches. In 1817, however, Congress did away with all internal taxes, relying on tariffs on imported goods to provide sufficient funds for running the government. The income tax was created to fund the Civil War. It was never removed from the books as the feds like the money and since then the amount has been changed from the 3% for low income and a higher amount for those over 10K income.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005921.html

Funny thing is, for citizens it is manditory, yet less than 10% of businesses pay taxes. Kinda off balanced that...
http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=article&DocID=2260
It is against the law. However, there use to be a lawyer here in town that would file a paper stating refusal to file due to unproper representation. I knew alot of people that would file it in protest. Somehow they would get away with it becaues the amount of government representation is the same ie number of representatives per state but, the number of people is substantionaly larger (something like that I never did fully understand it). I would not reccommend it . I have no idea what happened to any of these folks or that lawyer here in town as I had moved away for 10 years. It is equally likely that they are all in jail as it is that they continue to get away with it.
If you are a citizen or resident of the USA, and you had any potentially taxable income, then yes, failure to file would be a violation of the law.

Filing a tax return doesn't have to be a horrible chore. Software such as Turbo Tax or Tax Cut makes it easy. My personal favorite is Tax Act, by 2nd Story Software. (See www.taxact.com)
NO