Some tax resistance related news from the United States:
- American war tax resister and pillar of the Eugene, Oregon activist community Peg Morton has died. Here’s a tribute from Erica Weiland of NWTRCC, and another from the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
- The Boston Review takes a closer look at the Boston Tea Party, and how American perspectives on who did it and what it meant have changed over time.
- James Ferguson looks at the new ability of the government to revoke passports from people with tax debts in the light of the long-standing international legal norm concerning freedom to travel.
- Socially responsible companies pay lower taxes, and this is descriptive, not just prescriptive.
- Bucking recent downward trends, the IRS actually picked up a budget increase from a hostile Congress. The increase restores part of what was cut from the agency budget last year and reportedly earmarks it for taxpayer service, fraud detection, and cybersecurity. Along with the money came a set of new restrictions on the agency and its employees, most of which seem to be in the category of “appearing to put the screws to the IRS for the benefit of any constituents in the Tea Party who may be watching.”
- With Congressional hostility and budget-slashing added to the mix, the jobs of IRS workers are even more miserable than usual lately.
It doesn’t help recruitment when your facilities are infested with bedbugs.
The bed bugs were so bad at her new job with the Covington IRS office that some people covered their seats with plastic bags, Kelly Anderson said.
After two days, she quit.
“It’s important to have a second income in our home, but it’s not worth the risk of bringing those home. So, I will not be returning back.”
- And that’s not the only kind of bug the IRS is plagued with. A computer glitch caused the agency to emit tens of millions of dollars in refunds that its software had identified as likely to be fraudulent and that should have been held up.
- Another IRS office closed abruptly recently, posting a sign in its window reading “This office is closed due to local weather conditions.” This on a sunny day in California’s central valley, leaving frustrated taxpayers, who had driven in from as far as three hours away, fuming.
- Shareable has named my article on How to Not Pay Taxes as one of its Top 10 Stories of All-Time.
