Latest Tax Law Has Ramifications for Tax Resisters

Congress just passed another bill, which the President is expected to sign into law. It has a number of tax provisions, some of which may affect those of us who are using The DON Method of tax resistance.

Most exciting to me is that the bill permits sole proprietors to deduct their health insurance premiums as a business expense. Formerly such folks could take a deduction, but only after calculating business profits. The significance of this is that now the deduction reduces our profitability/income and therefore both our income tax and our SECA (social security & medicare) tax. The old way, it could reduce our income tax but we still were charged SECA on the income.

This makes sole proprietors more like employees whose employers provide health benefits. Those benefits don’t typically count as income and so neither the employer nor the employee gets charged taxes on them.

Unfortunately, Congress being Congress, it was only willing to enact this new provision temporarily. It officially applies only to the tax year. But now that the precedent has been established, it will probably get rolled into one of the yearly extenders packages.

Other provisions of the new bill:

  • Raises the §179 depreciation limit from $250,000 to $500,000 and extends the 50% bonus depreciation option for another year.
  • Allows new businesses to deduct $10,000 in start-up costs (that otherwise would have to be depreciated); the limit had been $5,000.
  • Expands the favored tax treatment of C corporation capital gains.
  • Allows some small business taxpayers to shift certain tax credits back into the five previous years and to use them even if the Alternative Minimum Tax would otherwise apply.
  • Expands the new “if you pay $600 or more to anyone you have to file a 1099-MISC with the government about it” policy so that it applies to landlords.
The Vote

From the issue of The Vote:

Women’s Tax Resistance League.

The Women’s Tax Resistance League has decided to hold a protest meeting in Hyde-park at , to express indignation at the imprisonment of Mrs. Kate Harvey, who has for conscientious reasons refused to subscribe to the tyranny of unrepresentative government. The speakers will be Mrs. [Margaret] Kineton Parkes, Mr. H.W. Nevinson, and others.

Also from the same issue:

At Headquarters.

we are holding an Indignation meeting at Caxton Hall, the indignation expressed to be generally against the Government, non-representation, mis-representation and imprisonment of voteless women, and particularly against the sentence of two months’ imprisonment in the second division, which Mrs. Harvey is now serving in Holloway because of her refusal to comply with the regulations of the Insurance Act passed over the heads of women without consulting women. The speakers will be Mrs. [Charlotte] Despard, Mrs. Kineton Parkes (of the Women’s Tax Resistance League), Mrs. Mustard, and Mr. John Scurr. The chair will be taken by Miss Nina Boyle at . Admission is free, and there will be no reserved seats. This is the first of a series of political meetings to be held by the Women’s Freedom League during the Parliamentary recess.…

At a public meeting held in Market-place, Bromley, Kent, on , the following resolution was put and carried with one dissentient:— “This meeting expresses deep indignation at the imprisonment of Mrs. Harvey for non-payment of Imperial taxes, demands her immediate release, and further demands that the Government act in accordance with its own principles, and introduce a measure for Votes for Women without delay.”

Also from the same issue:

What We Omitted To Say.

Mrs. Kineton Parkes, Secretary of the Women’s Tax Resistance League, reminds us that Miss [Ethel] Sargant, the first woman to be appointed president of a section of the British Association, is a keen Suffragist, and has worked for the National Union for many years, being president of their Tunbridge Wells Branch. She is also a tax-resister, and had goods seized and sold by public auction in Cambridge this spring, and is sister to Mrs. [Mary] Sargant Florence, the well-known decorative artist, one of the founders of the Women’s Tax Resistance League.

Elsewhere in the same issue:

Edinburgh.

A splendid open-air meeting, to protest against Mrs. Harvey’s imprisonment, was held on at the Mound. We were fortunate in having in the chair Dr. Grace Cadell, who is herself at this moment a “concrete example” of the form of militancy for which Mrs. Harvey is suffering. Dr. Cadell’s inability to “appear personally” in court, as she is not a person, has been greatly appreciated locally, but fortunately it does not extend to Suffrage platforms!…