On I wrote about the legal troubles of the tax-resisting Christian group The Restored Israel of YAHWEH and how there was a hint that the judge might try to resolve the case by allowing for a sort of back-door “peace tax fund.”
, the judge backed away from that idea and sentenced three tax-resisting church members to prison terms of six, 24 and 27 months, fined them, and ordered them to file and pay past, present and future tax returns.
At least one of the defendants has decided to appeal. Another is considering taking a vow of poverty so as to legally avoid future federal taxation (including the payroll tax).
Joseph Donato, Inge Donato, and Kevin McKee join the tax resisters hall of fame as three of the only thirty-five or so conscientious tax resisters to be jailed for their resistance . One of the lawyers on the case says that he believes these are “the first pacifist tax resisters to be prosecuted and jailed — possibly ever — for felony conspiracy to defraud the US and attempted tax evasion, the most serious criminal charges in the Internal Revenue Code.”
