22 January 2010
I’ve had a busy week, and haven’t had much of a chance to keep up with news
or keep The Picket Line up-to-date. Here are a few
things that caught my eye as I tried to catch up:
War tax resister Patrick
Keaney wrote an eloquent open letter to
U.S. President
Barack Obama a few days ago.
Musician Billy
Bragg has threatened to stop paying taxes to protest the huge bonuses
being paid out to Royal Bank of Scotland executives in the wake of
taxpayer bailouts. He’s also encouraging others to join his resistance:
“If you are a
British tax payer and feel strongly about this issue, I invite you to join
this campaign by simply writing a letter to the Chancellor informing him
of your decision to withhold your tax payment until he acts on
bonuses.”
In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, the
U.S.
government enacted a law allowing people who donate to relief efforts
to declare donations they make in January and
February of this year on their 2009
tax returns . This doesn’t change the maximum deduction limit, and the
deduction remains one of the itemized deductions, so it will not be of
practical use to many people, but if you’re still hunting for ways to get
under last year’s tax line, this might help you.
Contractors and companies who are delinquent in paying their federal taxes
are supposed to be ineligible for new federal government contracts. But
apparently, all along, all they’ve had to do is to lie about being good
taxpayers to get as much government work as they can manage.
The Obama administration says it plans to put some teeth in the rules ,
ordering federal agencies to double-check their contractors with the
IRS
before awarding contracts.
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania is home to an unusually corrupt government
culture (or maybe it’s just that they got caught). Federal authorities
have charged 23 county residents with various corruption charges,
including three judges and a county commissioner. And then the county
government decided to hike taxes by 10%.
Fred Heller said no.
Why fund a nest of crooks? He’s recorded a protest song titled
“Take This Tax and
Shove It” and he’s started a campaign to get county residents to
refuse to pay their taxes, at least until the government stables have had
all their manure shoveled out.
And check out the trailer for the new war tax resistance promotional film
Death
and Taxes
For more information on the topic or topics below (organized as “topic →
subtopic →
sub-subtopic”), click on any of the ♦ symbols to see other pages on this site that cover the topic. Or browse the site’s topic index at the “Outline” page .
How you can resist funding the government →
other tax resistance strategies →
charitable giving ▶
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Remember that $472 billion in this year’s budget for defense, nuke research, and war mop-up? What a coincidence — we’re going to be running a $477 billion deficit this year. Also: How to defeat the U.S. Army in your underpants; The White House transcripts of “Iraq: Denial and Deception”; and really — you don’t have to live in a cave to live under the tax line. The Picket Line gets a new frequently-asked-question: Is it possible to get under the tax line by giving away a whole lot of money to charity? And if so: just how much do you have to give away? The I.R.S. tells Congress how it plans to address the “tax gap”. Also: charitable giving may be one way that well-off folks can escape the income tax this year. Can you work without using a social security number? (Yes, if you know what you’re doing.) When you withdraw from those tax-deferred retirement accounts can you avoid the tax hit? (Yes, at least for the time being.) The free market — the really free market — the market where everything’s free… is it an anarchist plot to unloose chaos and destruction on the polis? (No: but call out the national guard anyway.) More on Katherine Fisher’s tax resistance, an obit for War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund founder Ken Brown, and how you can use charitable giving to lower your income below the tax line… in Canada anyway. How you can resist funding the government →
the tax resistance movement →
media →
video ▶
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ NWTRCC’s video contest begins. Also: Albert Jay Nock on anarchist ethics. And: war tax resisters find a receptive audience at the School of the Americas Watch protest in Georgia earlier this month. Choose your favorite among the finalists in NWTRCC’s video contest. Also: Dave Keniston writes about his tax resistance, and Ticia at T.P.M. Cafe thinks about getting her toes wet. And: the American public begins to suspect that they’re overspending on the military. The Agape Community, a group of radically nonviolent, tax resisting Catholics in Massachusetts that was founded in 1982. Also: Eric Volpe explains why he became a war tax resister. And: will tax resisters get hassled when they try to cross the border?. Two war tax resistance films — “Paying for Peace” and “An Act of Conscience” — are released on-line. Also: the story of The Bezuidenoudt Affair, an act of tax resistance that triggered the first Boer War. Two war tax resistance films — “Paying for Peace” and “An Act of Conscience” — are released on-line. Also: the story of The Bezuidenoudt Affair, an act of tax resistance that triggered the first Boer War. A new video from Conscience Canada promotes conscientious objection to military taxation. Also: as I walk down the path of tax resistance, I notice I’ve been bothered by the same stone in my shoe as those in whose footsteps I’m walking. On “The Ridley Report” Dave Ridley files a Peace Tax Return instead of a 1040. Also: a new G.A.O. report on the I.R.S. collection process contains a few bits of interest. If you tap on the core of central authority it sounds hollow, brittle, and rotten, like the stalk of a cattail just before the seeds are ready to disperse. Also: a video of David Schenck giving a talk about war tax resistance last month. And: Gerald DePyper tries to light a tax-resistance fire under the American anti-abortion movement. Some notes and photos from the first full day of the NWTRCC National Gathering in Cleveland, Ohio. Also: Aristotle continues to try to understand self-control and its absence, and contrasts his view with that of Socrates. Does this have anything to do with hypocrisy? A new edition of NWTRCC’s newsletter includes items on relationships where one person is a tax resister and the other one is not, news on a new war tax resistance film, upcoming and recent war tax resistance actions, and more. Also: Mexican vendors sell tax evasion paraphernalia, making the income tax there nearly a joke. Here’s a classy, well-made video short promoting war tax resistance. Also: registration information and more details about The 13th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns coming up in Norway this July. And: an update on duelling tax resistance campaigns in Chascomús (last time it was the secessionists from Lezama who were resisting; this time its the unionist Chascomunenses). A new video about government spending priorities and war tax resistance, put out by the Mennonite Central Committee. Also: seven million American children went missing in 1986, thanks to a change in the tax laws. And: Nepalese doctors stage a tax strike. A review of the new war tax resistance video, a look at how the war tax resistance testimony fares in modern Quaker Meetings, the Alliance of the Libertarian Left registers as a subversive organization and refuses to pay its filing fee, Steuern zu zahlen ist keine Bürgertugend, Wendy McElroy on the philosophy of William Wollaston, and American prison slave labor’s link to war materiel. George Ought to Help, but when people call on governments to mandate contributions to otherwise charitable causes, they are using disreputable violent means to feel-good ends. Some historical and global examples of tax resistance →
U.S. / Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (2010) →
Fred Heller ▶
♦ Some tax resistance campaigns have had their own anthems or fight songs. Some historical and global examples of tax resistance →
U.S. / Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (2010) Miscellanous tax resisters →
individual war tax resisters →
Patrick Keaney Miscellanous tax resisters →
individual tax resisters of other or more comprehensive sorts →
Billy Bragg ▶
♦ Billy Bragg goes to Hyde Park’s “Speaker’s Corner” to talk up his tax resistance campaign. Also: Vivien Kellems’s 1948 American payroll tax resistance is reenacted this year in Italy. And: a New York assemblyman asks his constituents to resist their taxes.
