Tax Resistance News from Wales, Greece, and Spain

Some international tax resistance news:

• A couple from Llanllwni, Wales, has stopped paying the so-called “bedroom tax” to the Carmarthenshire Council. They say their council home is so poor that, to avoid the condensation and subsequent mold in the bedroom, they have been forced to sleep on the living room floor. If the government is going to play slumlord, they’ll go on strike.
• Two monasteries in Greece have refused to pay the controversial new property tax called “ENFIA” claiming that such institutions should be exempt from the tax.
• “War is financed with your taxes,” headlines an article in Spain’s Nueva Tribuna about the war tax resistance movement there, which is probably the most-active such movement in the world today.

After Earl Grey’s administration was unable to move the Reform Act forward, the Duke of Wellington took the reins, and that was the last straw for the Reform advocates. They ramped up their resistance campaign with tactics that included tax resistance and a run on the banks. Here are some excerpts from an issue of the Staffordshire Advertiser with some of the news from the time:

…A serious run is taking place on the Manchester Savings Bank. Six hundred and twenty depositors, possessing 16,000l. have given notice to withdraw, chiefly on Friday and Saturday.

Military precautions have been taken within these few days to preserve the peace of the Metropolis.

The Non-payment of Taxes.

Saturday, and on the previous day, a number of the inhabitants of St. Margaret’s and St. John’s, Westminster, when applied to by the King’s tax-gatherer for the payment of taxes, refused in most unqualified terms. In some instances, the tax-collector begged and entreated as a friend the parties would pay him. Not until the Reform Bill is passed, was the general reply. A number of the inhabitants had notices placed to that effect in their windows. The determination is becoming more general every hour.