Merchants Refuse to Pay Sales Tax
Little Rock, Ark., . (AP) — Expressing confidence that their signed followers will stand firm, leaders of Arkansas’ sales tax rebellion opened their stores to customers with prices bearing no demand for the 2 per cent levy which automatically went into effect at .
Warned by Revenue Commissioner Earl Wiseman that if the merchants have not paid the levy to the state by he will enforce the collection under provisions of the tax act, Harley Stump, Stuttgart Leader of the rebellion’s most militant faction, retorted :
“Not a single merchant who signed the agreement will welch on it when the stores open for business .”
The agreement referred to by Stump pledges the merchants neither to collect the tax from their customers nor pay it to the states from their own profits. Stump reported that it has been signed by 98 per cent of the merchants at Stuttgart and by 59 out of 60 merchants at DeWitt.
Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → United States → Arkansas sales tax, 1935 → Harley Stump
