The I.R.S. Sends Me a Few Letters

Yesterday I got five letters from the IRS. One each to remind me of my unpaid taxes for 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 (I didn’t owe any federal tax in 2008).

They didn’t include anything ominous, except for the mild warning on the reverse side that if I don’t pay up “interest will increase and additional penalties may apply.” Apparently they are required to send out these bland reminders annually.

The total amount I owe from those years is a little north of $22,000. So I’m a little surprised they aren’t putting more effort into collecting. It’s possible they’re just too overwhelmed with other things to go after small-fry. Or they may be biding their time… the statute of limitations gives them ten years, I believe, so there’s no great hurry. In any case, it’s been ages since they’ve done anything more substantial than sending me letters.

Representatives from two of the “historic peace churches” — Mennonites and Brethren — met in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, last month to discuss how to revitalize the tradition of war tax resistance in their congregations.

[Barry] Kreider and [John] Yeatts agreed that neither purity nor protest resonates with church people who annually face the prospect of paying a share of the cost of America’s many wars. But witness may. “Jesus’s final instructions were that we are to be his witnesses,” said Yeatts, “and Revelation is filled with the language of witness.”