Tax Office Blocks Funds of Pacifist Organization

The Militant: Published in the Interest of the Working People (masthead)

This comes from the issue of The Militant:

Tax Office Blocks Funds of Pacifist Organization

The federal government has attached the bank account of the Committee for Non-Violent Action because two of its employes refuse to pay taxes on the grounds that such money will be used for war preparations. The CNVA, a pacifist organization, supported the two and did not deduct withholding tax money from their pay.

There have been numerous cases of objectors to war preparations refusing to pay income tax, thus inviting federal prosecution. In this case, however, the Internal Revenue Service has apparently taken no action against the two individuals but against the pacifist organization which employed them.

A.J. Muste, CNVA chairman, wrote the tax bureau that his organization would not be an instrument for collecting taxes and that the government would have to do the collecting itself from the individuals involved.

In more recent war tax resistance news:

  • Humans of New Mexico did an in-depth profile/interview with war tax resister Don Schrader.
  • Pacifists in Ciudad Real, Spain, rallied earlier this month. Excerpt:

    The seed of peace, stresses this group, must be planted with coherent actions. “This is the point where our individual consciences become a method of social transformation, when we disobey the obligation to pay taxes for military spending and declare this together and publicly.”

  • Michael McCarthy plugs war tax resistance in The Times Herald. Excerpt:

    This Pentecost season when we call on the Holy Spirit to renew our faith, let us resolve to take steps to stop giving Caesar our first fruits of federal income tax with which to make war, and convert these monies to God’s peacemaking purposes.

    For the practical measures, risks, responsibilities and spiritual benefits please contact the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee — nwtrcc.org — and seek prayerful informed support within your faith community. Whether conservative, liberal, tea party, radical or independent, some real investigation of national and world affairs shows how badly our money is being spent.