NWTRCC has posted meeting minutes from their conference in Seattle earlier this month.
Tough Questions for “Peace Tax Fund Act” Supporters
Mennonite tax resister Ray Gingerich has some tough questions for Christians who support the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act:
- I wonder how many conscientious Christians who subconsciously wish they didn’t need to pay war taxes, are of the mind that they can’t resist payment of these military taxes until a bill is passed to make it legal?
- I wonder if Congress ever passed a bill of this nature (including the special provisions granted conscientious objectors in WW Ⅱ), that was not in the self-interests of Congress itself?
- I wonder whether the most effective way to get Congress to pass a bill would be, not to lobby Congress, but to generate a huge movement of conscientious objectors, i.e., military tax resisters — people who resist the payment of military taxes because they are persuaded that it is sinful to pay military taxes and that the faithful way to follow Jesus is to resist payment?
- I wonder if Jesus ever, ever, had a vision of faithfulness and attempted to implement the vision by lobbying Rome (the Imperial Power) to get permission to do so?
- I wonder why in all these many years Marian Franz and the people behind the Peace Tax Fund have insisted on doing things so “a**-backward” — so contrary to both efficiency and faithfulness — common sense and the way of Jesus?
Can any Christian (or anyone else) tell me, please, why we work so hard to change the minds of our Congresspeople and Senators, and invest so little of our resources, both human and material, to convert the church to the ways of peace?
The IRS is having a hard time getting its debt collection outsourcing program off the ground. At Don’t Mess With Taxes, Kay Bell brings us up-to-date, and also reminds us that these debt collection agencies have certain legal obligations:
Under the law, for example, a third-party debt collector cannot:
- Call you at all hours of the day and night.
- Call you at work.
- Use obscene or abusive language.
- Threaten you with jail time or other actions the collector can’t legally take.
- Reveal your alleged debt to others, including employers, parents, children, friends and neighbors.
- Claim to be an attorney or send you documents that look like legal papers when they are not.
- Expressly say or imply that you will be arrested if you do not pay your debt.
- Threaten to seize, garnish, attach, or sell your property or wages unless the collection agency or creditor is legally able to do so and actually intends to follow through on the process.
And that’s just a small portion of the FDCPA rules and regulations. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse provides comprehensive information on the ins and outs of what is and isn’t allowed when it comes to debt collection.
At fivecentnickel, “nickel” notes a provision of the retirement savings tax credit that I was unaware of.
If you withdraw money from a retirement account, this may make you ineligible to take this credit in the years before or after your withdrawal. Another page spells this out in more detail:
