The issue of The Catholic Worker summarized the state of the art of war tax resistance at that time:
Resisting War Taxes:
On Telephones
The federal excise tax on telephone service has been associated with war spending throughout its history.
It was first imposed by the War Tax Revenue Act of .
Repealed in , the Act was then reimposed in .
During World War Ⅱ, long distance calls were taxed 25%, local service 15%.
In , the tax was reduced to 10% on all phone service, and then further reduced in to 3%, with elimination planned for .
Before this could happen though, the Vietnam War required that the revenue continue.
With military spending continuing at a high level after the Vietnam War, the tax was still retained, and in raised from 1% to 3%.
Currently, the federal government collects nearly two billion dollars a year through the telephone tax.
The tax is itemized on every phone bill (both for local service, and for all long distance companies).
To refuse this tax, one can simply deduct the amount of the tax, and pay the balance.
One should include a note each month explaining that one is not paying the tax in protest against military spending.
If this is not done, the tax will continue to appear on future bills as balance due.
“Telephone tax resistance" cards to enclose with your bill, explaining the protest, are available from several groups, and simplify the notification procedure.
No telephone company can legally disconnect one’s service for nonpayment of the excise tax.
If it does, it can be fined by the Federal Communications Commission.
A telephone company, once notified, should credit your account to eliminate the unpaid amount of the tax, and notify the IRS of your resistance.
The IRS may then send a routine computer notice asking for tax payment, but this rarely happens, since the amounts are small.
If the IRS takes action to collect the tax, many options are afforded the resister.
A war tax resistance counselor can help explore these options, and their consequences.
For information, contact the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, P.O. Box 2236, East Patchogue, NY 11772, (516) 654‒8227.
On Income
The primary way the United States pays for its wars and war preparations is by taxing income.
And, as long as there has been federal income tax, there has been resistance.
In , this meant resisting the payment of 63% of the income tax assessed, since that was the percentage of the federal budget devoted to military spending.
Various options are available, with different consequences following from each, for those wishing to resist these war taxes.
If one wishes to file tax forms as usual, one can simply include payment for less than is assessed; a “military credit" can be taken on the 1040 form; or a “military deduction” can be taken on Schedule A for miscellaneous deductions, all leading either to the non-payment of a token amount, or the amount which would go to the military, or all income tax (since any portion of what is paid then goes to the military).
Others may elect to either file a blank 1040 return, or no return at all.
Finally, a number of people close the Catholic Worker throughout the years have decided to resist war taxes by living under the taxable income.
While this is by no means easy these days, it has the benefit of incurring no penalty from the IRS, and of bringing one closer to the poor through the voluntary poverty which Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day long practiced and recommended.
Before attempting any form of federal tax resistance, one should become familiar with the various options available, and their consequences, including the different ways to avoid tax withholdings, which are a major impediment to resistance.
The War Resisters League, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012, (212) 228‒0450, has just published a completely revised edition of its Guide to War Tax Resistance, which remains the best resource book available.
It is $8, plus $1 for postage and handling.
The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, P.O. Box 2236, East Patchogue, NY 11772, (516) 654‒8227, has a variety of resources available, including a selection of booklets and a slide show on tax resistance, and can help make referrals to counselors and lawyers.
An article reflecting on direct action and on the Luddite movement, by Katharine Temple, in the issue of The Catholic Worker included this section on tax resistance:
Then there is tax resistance.
This route may not seem as dramatic as smashing the looms that spell unemployment; still, it does strike, nonviolently, the life-line sustaining the corporate-military mechanism.
(Certainly, the State takes it seriously.
Consider the lengths they go to collect meager amounts from people who openly withhold money to protest military spending.)
Refusing to pay the piper may be the most direct and non-confused way to say “No!” to the forces that enslave.
Ways to Resist
Most of us don’t stop to think how many ways tax resistance can be practiced.
At one end of the spectrum is the public and outright refusal to pay, a stance that limits employment possibilities and risks heavy fines or jail.
At the other end is the decision, equally fraught with hardship, to live below the taxable limit.
In between, lie other, less extreme options, such as a partial withholding, working within a lower tax bracket, avoidance of the telephone tax collected for military debts, exchanges of labor without money transactions, rationing (or even giving up!) highly taxed goods, etc.
Given that more than half the federal government budget goes to military expenses and hardware, every tax avoided through pure means is a moral and political statement of the highest order.
These decisions are not to be taken lightly, for the consequences can bear a heavy price.
Any wise builder, we are told, will “first sit down and count the cost whether he has enough to complete it” (Luke 14:28).
Presumably, it is not the best idea to act only in confused, midnight encounters nor to make costly gestures frivolously.
At the same time, if we dismiss tax refusal out of hand, just as when the Luddites have been dismissed, the concern is not always about violence, nor the cost, but the futility.
Isn’t it all doomed to failure?
The die is cast, so that neither demonstrations nor symbolic action nor direct refusals will make the slightest difference.
This is what stops us from even the smallest actions.
The assessment of failure, though, is always a later one, and we shouldn’t give in to historical determinism.
“Our only criterion of judgment should not be whether a man’s actions are justified in the light of subsequent evolution.” (E.P. Thompson)
Furthermore, as Christians, we must hold to belief in the economy of good, that no good action, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, is lost in God’s plan.
The issue of The Catholic Worker announced a war tax resister’s penalty fund:
Tax Resister’s Penalty Fund: A Little Help from Their Friends
By the time this issue of the paper reaches you, , may have come and gone, and so it may be too late to urge again income tax refusal.
It is not too late, however, to take some other steps.
For example, a project has been set up to provide financial and moral support for war tax resisters and to provide a way for those who are not yet able to take that path to support those who have.
Basically, the Tax Resister’s Penalty Fund (TRPF) seeks to reimburse those who suffer financial loss when the IRS levies penalties and charges (over and above the original tax money demanded) against resisters.
The TRPF is sponsored by the North Manchester Fellowship of Reconciliation, which evaluates each request for assistance and requires documentation showing that the penalty has already been collected by the IRS as a result of one’s refusal to pay military taxes.
The fund was established in and, in , reimbursed nineteen war tax resisters for a total of $8,976.76.
As the number of requests increases, it is important that the number of contributors keeps pace.
You can help by joining, sending a donation of any amount, and also by spreading the word.
War tax resisters are taking a brave stand, and they need a little help from their friends.
For further information, please write to: TRPF, North Manchester Fellowship of Reconciliation, P.O. Box 25, North Manchester, IN 46962.
Although acts of civil disobedience and conscientious objection take varied forms in our country, few in recent memory have resulted not only in loss of freedom but of hearth and home as well.
It is perhaps the latter event which placed North Americans closest to those who lose homes through eviction, war and other forms of violence.
Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner were arrested in , after the Colrain, Massachusetts home, where they lived with their daughter Lillian, was forcibly seized by the federal government for non-payment of taxes.
Betsy was later released, while Randy remains in jail as we go to press, to serve a six-month sentence for contempt of court.
Their home was put on the auction block in , with the federal government ending up as the only bidder and subsequent “owner” of Randy and Betsy’s place, but it has taken two-and-a-half years of other legal maneuvers before they have finally been removed and charged with contempt, despite strong local support and publicity.
Betsy and Randy lease the land on which their home is situated through the Valley Community Land Trust, a non-profit corporation using land for conservation, garden and agricultural purposes, and for affordable housing.
Like many resisters who pay local and state taxes, Randy and Betsy are in disagreement with federal levies used for nuclear weapons production, military intervention and other acts deemed criminal by international law.
Despite all talk of arms reduction carried out in saw Congress giving its approval to $270 billion dollars for the military budget.
The court ruling in favor of ownership by the United States further stated that the government had the right to padlock the house since it “had proper title to, and was entitled to possession of” the home in which Randy, Betsy and Lillian have lived for the last twelve years.
When asked in their court appearance if they planned to reenter their home, Betsy agreed not to when released, and Randy added, “It is my intention neither to occupy or not occupy my house.
It is my intention to oppose the use of my tax dollars for killing and preparations for war.”
But friends, neighbors and other sympathetic supporters have, since the time of the seizure, occupied the house.
On the following morning, for instance, a group of fourteen resisters, including the indefatigable 84-year-old Wally Nelson, who has been “just saying no” to federal war taxes , removed the government’s padlocks and remained in the house for several days, risking arrest in doing so.
As of this date, these occupations continue.
The eloquent response of Betsy Corner to those who have asked if they were “nervous” about the loss of their home, illumines one method of solidarity for these hard times:
“Sure we are. We’ve lived here for over twenty years, and our twelve-year-old daughter Lillian was born here.
We love this place, and the land, and our neighbors too.
But we have to ask ourselves, is our home more important than the tens of thousands of homes that have been destroyed by our brutal bombing of civilian neighborhoods in Panama and Iraq or by the US-sponsored bombing that’s going on at this very moment in El Salvador?
More important than the hundreds of thousands of homes our country has denied to homeless people here in America?
More important than the millions of homes here and around the world that will be incinerated in a flash or irradiated forever, if we don’t stop building nuclear weapons and generating more and more nuclear waste?”
For further information on Betsy and Randy’s current status and ways of assisting their efforts, please contact:
War Tax Refusers Support Committee (WTR), c/o Traprock Peace Center, Keets Rd., Deerfield, MA 01342, (413) 774‒2710 or (413) 773‒7427.
―Jane Sammon
The same issue had an additional article about war tax resistance:
War And Taxes
The CW listed some boycotts suggested as one route to follow “the little Way" of peace.
Now, as the income-tax-returns season is in full swing, is the time to urge a further boycott — of the Internal Revenue Service.
Once we know about the military pursuits in the Persian Gulf over the past year…, surely we must say “No!" to the government as clearly and as concretely as possible.
Nor can the Persian Gulf War be seen as an isolated incident, a regrettable aberration from national policy.
The very existence, for instance, of a “School of the Americas” in Fort Benning, shows how deep-seated is the pursuit of violence in the practices of the US government.
The fact of the matter is that more than half the money collected by the IRS goes to pay for war or to prepare for war.
According to the old adage, “Death and taxes are inevitable” but, according to our faith, murder is not allowed.
True, our Lord did say, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed” (Matthew 24:6 and Mark 13:7);
He did not add though, that we should take an active part to promote them.
And, on the mundane level of financial considerations, modern warfare would be rendered well nigh impossible if nobody would foot the bill.
During the war in Vietnam, someone who promoted tax resistance was once asked what to do about the money to be withheld.
He answered, “Better to flush it down the toilet as waste-paper than to pay for the war.”
In reality, though, practicalities about the dollars and cents demanded for taxes cannot be quite so simply swept aside, nor considered only at the moment of the due date.
Peter Maurin taught a full life of voluntary poverty when he interpreted Jesus’ enigmatic reply about taxes with “The less you have of Caesar’s, the less you have to render unto him.”
Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner are now paying the price, in prison, and through the loss of their home to the IRS.
The War Resisters League has proposed the Alternative Revenue Service as a means to hold and channel monies not handed over to the government.
These are all “hard" suggestions which reveal the iron grip of taxes.
Even if success for the tax resistance movement is not imminent, any withholding of federal income taxes marks a break in the deadly power of the economic system in which we are all complicit.
It is a system whose principal “product” is war, whose motive is profit, whose organizing principle is usury.
Usury (charging interest on a loan to make money from money) is the word Peter Maurin emphasized in his discussions on economics, one we seldom hear anymore.
It is the basis for all our financial institutions, from the International Monetary Fund and the world debt to the Savings and Loan frauds (which have been described as “pure capitalism,” that is, effectively unfettered from constraints of either human labor or natural resources) to the stock market to insurance plans, right down to your local bank account.
But the guarantor of usury is the Federal Reserve System, through our taxes.
Barry Peters’ study on the ban on usury in the Hebrew Scriptures, makes it clear how this practice is violent robbery and oppression.
January 15 is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
, his memorial was eclipsed by the formal outbreak of hostilities against Iraq.
This year, let us rekindle the light of his life and martyrdom by a dedication to his ways of active nonviolence, by a refusal to render unto Caesar the ways of violence.
Instead, let us find alternative ways to render the fruits of our labor unto God, and to His children, to whom they belong.
―Katharine Temple
An Alternative Revenue Service
The Alternative Revenue Service (ARS) is a project of the War Resisters League (cosponsored by the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee and the Conscience and Military Tax Campaign) designed to educate public opinion about the realities of military spending in the federal budget, and to give people a chance to redirect $1 or more of their money “owed” in federal taxes to an established alternative fund.
Last year, people who wished to practice tax resistance, to put that money towards peaceful purposes, put $12,000 into the ARS.
For further information or advice, please write to Lisa Harper, Alternative Revenue Service, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012, or telephone their “hot-line” 1‒800‒955‒7322.
Attention New York City CW Readers!
Are you interested in finding ways to channel the grief and anger felt in the aftermath of the Gulf War, while discovering alternatives to war in general?
New York City War Tax Resistance (WTR) offers support and information meetings the first Monday of each month — , , etc. — at 6:30 pm.
The meetings are held at 339 Lafayette St. (IRT Number 6, Bleeker St. station).
For more information, please contact Sallie Marx at: (212) 929‒4833.
The issue of The Catholic Worker included an article by Karl Meyer about a road-trip taken by him and Kathy Kelly.
Here are some excerpts that touch on tax resistance:
After we went on to Salina, Kansas and Newton, Kansas, where we visited with Mennonite friends in the war tax refusal movement.
Everywhere we stopped we found the peace movement vibrant, active and numerous, contradicting the falsehoods that President Bush and much of the press tell about the demise of our efforts.
In New Mexico
The same energy was evident in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico, where we visited friends in the war-tax refusal movement.
Don Schrader in Albuquerque had arranged two television news interviews, two newspaper interviews, eight radio talk show appearances, and a lively public meeting.
We renewed acquaintances that showed us how the web of peace action stretches its stands all over North America and Central America.
Perhaps these were the very fields and ditches where Ammon Hennacy worked when he came to Phoenix in , with only a penny in his pocket.
He worked as a farm laborer in order to avoid the withholding of taxes for war.
, he picketed the IRS to let them know why he refused to pay any taxes for war.
In , he began to fast and picket one day for each year that had elapsed since Hiroshima.
(A few copies of his autobiography, The Book of Ammon, are still available from his widow, Joan Thomas, P.O. Box 25, Phoenix, AZ 85001, for $20.)
I am eager to picket with the Peace House this spring at the IRS office in Phoenix, to remind them of Ammon Hennacy, who made a radical and a tax resister out of me thirty-five years ago:
We have come back to bother you again.
This society, and each one of us personally, must put our income into servicing human needs, not into the works of war.
Only then can we rise from the economic ashes of the arms race, the Vietnam War, and our brutal indifference to the needs of the poor in the years since then.
The issue of The Catholic Worker gave an update on the Randy Kehler / Besty Corner house seizure:
War Tax Refusers Update
Although Randy Kehler, Colrain, Massachusetts war tax resister (CW ), was released from jail after a little more than two months, the occupation of his family’s home by friends and supporters continues.
The federal government seized the house for non-payment, and later arrested Randy and his wife, Betsy Corner (briefly held) for contempt after their refusal to surrender it.
Their home has been auctioned off, and is now owned by someone from a nearby town.
At press time, the new “owner” has yet to move in, while groups sympathetic to the cause of tax resistance are taking turns at occupying the home, despite threats of arrest.
For more information, please call the War Tax Refusers Support Committee at: (413) 774‒2710, or write: c/o Traprock Peace Center, Keets Road, Deerfield, MA 01342.
There were also a handful of brief passing references to tax resistance in other issues of The Catholic Worker in .
