War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund Issues New Appeal

The War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund (WTRPF) is a mutual aid program that reimburses war tax resisters for penalties and interest taken by the IRS in the course of their resistance.

While many resisters manage to avoid having the IRS seize money from them, some are less lucky, and some resist in a way that either makes them vulnerable to such seizure, or does not attempt to avoid it.

The fund makes it easier for people to refuse to pay taxes for war, as the worst that is likely to happen to them financially is that they lose through seizure the amount they had refused to pay in the first place — if the IRS adds penalties and interest to that amount, the WTRPF covers it.

The Fund raises the money to pay these amounts from people who subscribe to it, typically because they are sympathetic to war tax resistance or are resisters themselves.

The WTRPF has recently put out a new appeal for funds. They are asking subscribers to send $30 apiece to reimburse David Zarembka for penalties and interest added to war taxes he resisted in 2005. He has been a resister since 1971, and they’re only catching up to him now by seizing his Social Security.

If you would like to contribute, there’s a donation button on the WTRPF website with which you can use PayPal or a credit card, or you can send a check to the Conscience and Military Tax Campaign, P.O. Box 2096, Mars Hill, NC 28754.

• Here’s my article from Waging Nonviolence on how mutual aid funds like this strengthen the war tax resistance movement.
• And here’s David Zarembka addressing war tax resistance on the American Friends Service Committee blog.

The IRS keeps antagonizing Congress, and Congress keeps cutting its budget, which is great news for those of us hoping Trump turns the U.S. Government into another one of his bankrupt enterprises.

The latest chapter has the Senate digging through IRS travel records, and finding some employees living lavishly on the taxpayer dime.

Employees travelling to Washington, D.C. are permitted up to $7,099 per month on lodging alone. One spent $38,799 for a five-month stay at the Grand Hyatt; another spent $72,544 over the course of the year at the Ritz Carlton and others. One rented a $4,950 per month townhouse in Arlington, Virginia; another a $4,605 luxury apartment in Chicago.

Another employee submitted 381 days’ of travel reimbursement requests in a 365-day year.

This gives Congress another opportunity to pontificate on the side of the taxpayer, the IRS Commissioner another opportunity to express contrition, and yet… I can’t help but feel this situation suits everybody just fine. After all, similar problems were uncovered at the agency a few years ago, too, and nothing really changed then.