Ginny Schneider on I.R.S. Wage Garnishment

On the wtr-s email discussion forum, war tax resister Ginny Sсhnеider shares her experiences from an IRS wage garnishment. Excerpt:

[Y]ears ago when a notice to garnish wages was received by an employer, the employer had 30 days to comply. Now it appears that the 30-day notice is sent directly to the non-taxpayer and the 30 days begins ticking then. Thirty days later the employer receives the notice if no payment has been made by the resister. The employer must comply immediately. In other words, there is no longer a grace period to sort things out once the employer has received the notice. This means the IRS will receive whatever wages have been earned during the pay period when the employer receives the notice to garnish. The only way this might be stopped is to file a collection appeal. When the appeal is filed the IRS is required to suspend collection during the appeal process.


A brief article on war tax resistance by Anita Katz appeared in the issue of Mother Jones. It is mostly the standard boilerplate war tax resistance article, but in a couple of paragraphs it tries to guesstimate the size of the movement.

Juanita and Wally Nelson

This photo by Lionel Delevigne of war tax resisters Juanita and Wally Nelson accompanied the article

It was opposition to the Vietnam War that first created widespread national attention for antiwar tax resisters. The number of antiwar income-tax resisters rose from 275 in 1966 to an estimated 20,000 in , with telephone tax resisters during this peak period estimated at between 200,000 and 500,000.

Though figures have since leveled off — there were an estimated 5,000 income-tax resisters in  — many in the movement are hoping that further revelations of the Reagan administration’s mucking about in Central America will fuel a new round of war-tax resistance. Says David Croteau at the War Resisters League, “The two fundamental needs for the government to conduct war are men to serve in the military and cash for equipment — which comes from taxes.”