NPR. Back in the mid 2000s, Charles and Kathleen Moore decided to invest in a business.

Now, they live in Washington State, but they had this friend who wanted to start a business in India,

a company that would provide low-income farmers with

farming equipment.

Here they are talking about it in a video for a Libertarian Think Tank called the Competitive

Enterprise Institute.

We were really excited to be part of this company that was growing and

reaching more and more people all over India. They invested $40,000 which gave them an 11% ownership stake in the company.

It's like, wow, we are making a difference here to Indian farming.

As the company grew, its profits were reinvested in the business and the more say they weren't paid anything.

That's why they were surprised when in 2018 they got a bill from the IRS for $15,000 in income taxes.

If you haven't received any income, how can you be required to pay income taxes?

The Moors paid the bill, but they also sued the US government and took the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

This is the indicator from Planet Money, I'm Whelan Wong.

And I'm Waylon Wong.

And I'm Adrian Ma.

In a few days, the Supreme Court will hear arguments

in Moore versus the United States.

And tax law experts think this case could be big. This is perhaps the biggest

constitutional tax case that we've seen arguably in about 100 years and could have

really big implications for how the income tax actually works.

And it raises a fundamental question.

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