Today I got eight letters from the
IRS, one
for each year in which I have a tax
debt (in 2008 I didn’t owe any tax, so that year is missing). Each letter tells
me the amount I haven’t paid for that year, including interest and penalties.
They do this every year, so this isn’t unexpected. But there are two things
that make it remarkable this year:
The oldest year in the stack is tax year .
Since it’s currently , the ten-year
statute of limitations clock is really ticking on this one. The agency has
until to collect.
The total for those years comes to $46,259. When they notice that I haven’t
paid my taxes either, that will bring the
total up above $50,000. At that point, according to a new law whose
implementation is only now being rolled out, the
IRS
is supposed to notify the State department that I’m a notorious tax
scofflaw, and that agency is then authorized to rescind my passport. I
really hope they don’t. But that adds to the risks I’m taking with this
approach.
How are you going to take him on? It’s not only Donald Trump. There is a
majority-Republican House and Senate. They’re vowing to take down Planned
Parenthood, to defund it, to repeal the Affordable Care Act. How are you
going to do this?
Gloria Steinem
Well, one day at a time. For instance, if they defund Planned Parenthood
and defund NPR, we can take that money out of our income tax, put a note
with our return saying, “Sorry, I’ve sent it where it should go. Come and
get me.” If enough people do that, it’s very difficult to do anything
about it. We did it in the Vietnam era. And then, we just — it was more
difficult, in a way, because we were just keeping the money. This is more
positive, because we’re actually giving the money where it should go.
Gloria Steinem
You know, Planned Parenthood is, of course, necessary to women’s health in
this country. A very—what? One percent of it goes toward abortion. It does
everything, we know—breast exams and everything else. So it would be
incredibly expensive to every emergency room in the nation, if they were
not able to serve women and men in the way that they do. Therefore, if
they defund it, we’ll take money out of our income tax and send it
direct.
It’s rare in the United States for people who engage in civil disobedience
for reasons of moral necessity to be able to make such an argument in court,
and it’s even rarer for such an argument to succeed. But
four anti-drone protesters were found innocent by a jury
of charges of obstruction of government administration, disorderly conduct,
and trespass earlier this month.
