From a the-news-in-brief column in The Miami News
on :
War and Taxes: Iowa pacifist Walter Gormley, of Mount Vernon, who has
refused to pay his income tax ,
did it again in an “open letter” to
the Internal Revenue Service, saying he would not pay the current levy “to
support the war policies” of the government; as in the past,
IRS
agents prepared to confiscate his property and intercept debts owed him to
get their share of his income… And remember, the government has postponed the
income tax due date from to
.
And from the Chicago News Examiner from
, an article by Marj
Halperin:
The conservative call to send teabags to
DC to protest high taxes may be
based on a event, but organizers are
newbies when compared to a 23-year-old tax protest underway in northern
Indiana.
There, peace activists gave been quietly supporting those who dare to
withhold taxes because they don’t want their money to support the
US military
budget. There’s a price to pay for that kind of protest, of course, in the
form of penalties and interest on taxes due. That’s where
the War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund
(WTRPF) comes in.
Organizers send out appeal letters from time to time, asking for
contributions from those who agree with the protest but don’t have the nerve — or resources — to withhold their own taxes. Each letter briefly describes
the status of individuals who have withheld their taxes.
San Francisco’s David Gross stopped paying federal income taxes when the
US invaded Iraq,
“and started working for my values instead of against them.” He quit his job
and reduced his income to the point where he no longer owes federal income
tax, and discusses his efforts on the web.
A former nun from North Carolina owes $1,749 in penalties for withholding
taxes in . “I cannot in
conscience pay for war and killing, weapons and bombs… these our federal
taxes perpetuate,” she writes in the latest appeal to supporters.
A brunswick, Georgia activist cites “the First Amendment of the
US Constitution
and certain
US treaty
obligations to honor the religious practices of its citizens” when he
withholds federal taxes in opposition to war, adding “the government has
provided me no way of paying taxes which does not violate my faith in God.”
In return, his paycheck has been garnisheed to collect $7.027 in interest and
penalties.
The WTRPF asks only for
what it needs. The current appeal went to 300 active contributors, asking
each for $33.63 to raise a total of $10,089 (including $300 for postage and
printing, $200 for the
WTRPF organization). Non
profit fundraising doesn’t get much more honest than that.
So, while the conservatives’ “national day of protest” is good for plenty of
air time, the WTRPF has a
no-frills approach to protesting the military budget — one that also helps
individuals feel like they’re making a difference.
