Join Cooperative Business Arrangements
Some tax resisters form businesses that help them and their partners and employees to resist. Under a regime that enforces taxation by means of a pay-as-you-earn scheme, this can help make tax resistance possible for employees.
Example Ed Guinan
For example, American war tax resister Ed Guinan opened a print shop called “Collective Impressions” and used it to facilitate his and his employees’ resistance. He withheld taxes from his employees’ paychecks as the law required, but instead of sending this money to the Internal Revenue Service, he sent it directly to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. “They return it with a polite note saying that they cannot accept it,” Guinan said, “and we put it into a tax escrow account which cannot be used for normal business expenses.”
Example Restored Israel of Yahweh
A small Christian sect called the Restored Israel of Yahweh has war tax resistance among its tenets. Some members of the group formed a small construction business and helped those of its employees who were also members of the sect to resist their taxes. They carried this so far that the business’s officers would eventually face criminal tax evasion convictions. (The sect paid the fines of its convicted members.)
Notes and Citations
- Browning, Frank “Tax Revolt!” Inquiry 2 April 1979
- Goldberger, Peter “Resentencing of Restored Israel of Yahweh defendants” wtr-s email list, 24 March 2008