Dr. Arthur Evans Jailed for War Tax Resistance

This comes from the 16 September 1963 issue of The Militant:

Jail Colo. Pacifist For Tax Refusal

For 20 years, Dr. Arthur Evans, a member of the Society of Friends [Quakers] in Colorado, has refused to pay that part of his income tax which corresponds to the percentage of the national budget used for military expenditures. In the past the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has subtracted from his bank account the amount he refused to pay. This year, however, the IRS insisted that he pay the full amount. Dr. Evans refused. He also refused to produce his financial records when ordered to do so by District Court Judge Alfred A. Arraj. On Aug. 14, he was ordered jailed for 90 days for contempt of court.

Last January, when the IRS was still pressuring him to produce his financial records, Dr. Evans replied: “I have not changed my mind in regard to my previously stated position that it is wrong for me to cooperate consciously and voluntarily with the state when it takes the fruits of man’s labor and uses over half of it to prepare man’s destruction.”

Dr. Evans is still refusing to cooperate, and has chosen instead to serve his 90 day contempt sentence in the Denver County Jail.

In other news…

• Another “suspicious package” interrupted business at an IRS mailroom earlier this month. This one seems at first glance to be more serious than the usual envelope full of talcum powder: “[O]fficials said about 10 people reported being ill, including vomiting and nausea, after the package arrived at the sprawling building’s mailroom…”
• There has recently (between 2010 and 2015) been a dramatic increase in the number of Americans who fail to pay their quarterly estimated federal taxes on time or in a sufficient amount to avoid penalties.