Some international tax resistance news:
- , a group of business owners in Lviv announced that they would stop paying value-added and income taxes to the Ukraine central government of Viktor Yanukovych — those taxes that go to maintain the military and internal security forces. The businesses plan to continue paying social security and local taxes. They also called on other businesses across Ukraine to join them.
- The “pos me salto” movement of Mexico seems to be spreading to other countries where governments have hiked transit fares as a “stealth tax.”
I’ve seen examples popping up in recent weeks from Rio de Janiero to Barcelona.
protesters in Brazil disable fare gates
- River Att, of Hulme, England, has legally changed his name to River Axe The Tax. Mr. Axe The Tax is fighting increased fees the government is charging to people who live in subsidised housing if the government deems them to have more rooms than strictly necessary: something foes of the policy call the “bedroom tax.”
- Activists in Spain have been promoting something they call “economic disobedience” — a program of disengagement from the official economy and construction of a grassroots economy that includes tax resistance and redirection. A new report from Spain’s Ministry of Finance reveals that the underground economy in Spain has been surging, and now represents about a quarter of Spain’s gross domestic product.
- France’s tax agency misses out on about €10 billion each year thanks to “zappers” — computer programs that businesses can use to override the software on their cash registers to as to hide transactions and avoid reporting receipts.
