Want to Avoid Income Tax Like I Do? Here’s How.

I’ve been working hard over on a how-to guide for evading taxes by taking deductions to lower your taxable income and by qualifying for tax credits. Because this is a mouthful, I’ve coined the acronym “NON” (for “Not Owin’ Nothin’ ”) to describe the method. Kinda corny, but I needed to come up with something short and memorable.

Update: as you can see if you follow the link, I’ve since changed the title and acronym.

I wrote this because I was frustrated by the war tax resistance counseling material that I’d read. I’ve got a War Resisters League book on tax resistance, and a National War Tax Resisters Coordinating Committee pamphlet that’s specifically about the method of lowering income. Both of these sources suggest that you have to live way below the poverty line to get away with not paying taxes in this way.

That’s far from true. And I’m concerned that this unnecessarily discourages people who want to practice this form of tax resistance. So I started on a how-to guide to correct this.

But… I’m not a tax expert, an accountant, or a lawyer, so I’m a little hesitant to get too detailed about it. I’d hate to miss some crucial footnote in the tax code and give people the wrong impression. Also, there’s a whole different set of deductions and credits you take if you have dependent children, for instance, and I don’t know much about those.

So I’ve put out a call to other folks in the tax resistance movement to give me a hand, and now I’m putting out the same call here. Please let me know if you have any comments about my how-to guide. You can use the “email” link in the sidebar to contact me.