What were American war tax resisters up to in , you ask? Let’s investigate. From the Niagara Falls Gazette:
Cleric’s tax to be paid by diocese
Philadelphia (AP) The Episcopal Diocese of Philadelphia has agreed to pay income taxes for one of its priests who refused to pay the levy as a protest of the war in Southeast Asia.
The Rev. David Gracie, urban missioner for Philadelphia, said he had withheld $545.25 — half of his Income tax — for 18 months as a protest against the war. His current annual salary is $14,175.
In his appearance before the church council, he said, “I appeal to the council to join in a corporate act of resistance against this barbaric, immoral war.”
He told the council that if the bill were paid, “you will finish me as a tax resister.”
During a heated debate that preceded the decision, one council member, Arthur Slater, a Defense Department employe, said the group would be engaging in subversion if it backed Father Gracie.
From the Columbia Missourian:
Anti-War Tax Movement Set
By Gwen Tintera
Miissourian Staff WriterSister organizations formed plan to urge Columbia residents to resist the telephone war tax and to channel funds from the tax into a community project.
About 15 persons met at the Ecumenical Carter Center, 813 Maryland Ave., in an initial organizational meeting of the Columbia War Tax Resistance and the Columbia Community Life Fund.
The 10 per cent federal excise tax on phone service was enacted in “with the sole purpose of financing the war in Vietnam,” Dave Brey, an organizer of the local resistance group said.
He urged those gathered to subtract the tax from their phone bills, enclosing an explanatory note with a check for the remainder of their bill. Tax boycotters might expect a call from the Internal Revenue Service, Brey said, and eventually the unpaid amount plus up to 6 per cent interest might be deducted from a bank account or salary check.
A second meeting of the War Tax Resistance will be held at at the Help Yourself Center. Brey said the organization which will seek “wide community support” would be interested in knowing what the community wants to do with funds collected.
The organization is one of about 180 tax resistance centers nationwide.
From the Niagara Falls Gazette:
IRS office “handcuffed”
Rochester, N.Y. (AP) — Handcuffs were used to lock the main entrance of the Internal Revenue Service office during an anti-war demonstration .
Police said about a dozen persons calling themselves the Rochester War Tax Resistance gathered in front of the downtown office at and distributed leaflets. Handcuffs were clamped shut on the office door handles, blocking the entrance for about 30 minutes.
Police removed the ’cuffs with wire cutters and arrested one of the protestors.
Officers said Robert H. Staley, 21, of Rochester, was carried from the sidewalk and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
From the Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Daily Times:
Supporters jubilant
War register gets probation
Philadelphia (AP) — Vietnam war resister, John Paul Malinowski, has been sentenced to three months probation for refusing to pay federal income tax. A crowd of supporters in the courtroom greeted the sentencing with a chorus of “Solidarity Forever” and jubilant applause.
Malinowski, 30, a former St. Joseph’s College theology instructor, was placed on three months probation for telling the college’s payroll department that he had 15 dependents. The large number of exemptions cut his withholding to nothing.
He was convicted on , at a jury trial where he said his 15 dependents were fellow members of the War Tax Resistance Fund.
With about 175 of his supporters present , Malinowski told the court “I will not and have not paid (income tax) as long as this criminal conduct by our country continues. I am filing a return and will file one today, and I’m paying taxes, but not to the Internal Revenue Service. I am paying into the community of Philadelphia.”
Noting that he was in court on the income tax filing deadline day, Malinowski said, “It is also another day when the awesome might of the U.S. military machine is raining unprecedented amount of bombs on the people of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.”
Defense lawyer John Egnal asked U.S. District Judge Danel H. Huyett Ⅲ to defer sentencing until a class action suit challenging the constitutionality of the Southeast Asia war could be settled. A three-judge federal panel, including Judge Huyett, is to hear that case, in which Malinowski is a plaintiff.
An IRS spokesman said the agency could now attach Maliowski’s salary or any of his bank accounts.
