College Reporter Tops Pro Peers in Report on War Tax Resisters

It’s mid-April, coming up on , and so it’s time for the annual fifteen-minutes-of-fame for the tax resistance set.

The Portland State University Vanguard had an article that surpassed in accuracy and thoroughness most of its counterparts in the off-campus press. It is an especially good source of information on tax resistance for college students, particularly those wondering if a tax resister risks losing financial aid.

You may know that I frequently grumble about how the press overstates the difficulty of living below the tax line. Usually the reporter just adds the standard deduction and personal exemption and then declares authoritatively that this is the sub-poverty limit that impoverished tax resisters must live below in order to practice their crazy beliefs.

So I nearly groaned out loud at this passage in the Vanguard:

One of the most common ways that war tax resisters avoid filing taxes is by keep[ing] their income below the taxable level. For an individual, the cutoff is $7,300 per year, and the amount increases with each dependent claimed.

But the reporter decided to dig deeper:

“Legal deductions can bring higher incomes down to below the taxable level, but you have to plan ahead and work at it,” [Tana] Hastings said. “There are legal ways not to live in poverty, and still not pay any taxes.”

Bless you, Tana Hastings! And you, ace reporter Christie Toth!