Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → Pakistan → business strike, 2019

In other news…

• An international conference on war tax resistance is planned for later this year in Edinburgh, Scotland. It will also be the occasion for the general assembly of Conscience & Peace Tax International.
• The war on traffic-ticket-generating radar cameras continues, with several destroyed by rebels in France using fire and spray paint, and another destroyed by an accident it contributed to in Germany.
• Facebook has decided it will ban advertising that discourages people from voting. This should go to show that censorship is of course going to be practiced on behalf of the already powerful (who have the power to censor) and against unpopular heresies. But, you know, polite liberal golf claps is about all I hear.
• A poll of expatriate U.S. citizens showed that many are contemplating renouncing their U.S. citizenship, largely because of the tax (and onerous tax reporting) burden.
• Businesses in Pakistan are on strike to protest a sales tax increase.
• An IRS building in Kansas City, Missouri was shut down by a hazmat team because of “a brown substance on a package” discovered by an employee.

Some international tax resistance news of note:

• The “Extinction Rebellion” movement’s London branch is launching a tax strike to protest the city’s funding of projects that exacerbate climate change. They intend to begin withholding 20% of their council tax once they have a critical mass of signers-on to their strike proposal. The withheld funds will be redirected to a project to create a new city plan with a focus on ecological sustainability. They have created a London Tax Rebellion Information Booklet to support the campaign. They were inspired by Extinction Rebellion activist Imogen May who refused to pay council tax as part of her protest.
• Businesses in Pakistan have shut their doors in a hartal to protest sales tax hikes. There is an irony in that the strike is targeting the government of Imran Khan, who, when he was in the opposition, launched a tax strike of his own for similar motives.
• More reports of speed camera destruction around the world, lately in Russia, Ecuador, Germany, and France.
• Here’s another follow-up article on Mennonite Church USA’s recent decision to expand its war tax redirection fund.

Some recent links from here and there:

• Brayton & Suzanne Belote Shanley of the Agape Community are interviewed at NWTRCC’s blog about their war tax resistance and the intentional community they cofounded with war tax resistance at its core.
• Vendors in Pakistan are ramping up their anti-tax protest after a brief shut-down strike last month with new street protests.
• Venetian separatists are again refusing to pay taxes to Italy, paying their federal taxes instead to “Veneto State”.
• Some 17,000 taxpayers in Catalonia also are paying their federal taxes to the Catalan tax agency rather than the Spanish one, in acts of civil disobedience.
• There’s a tax strike underway in Beni, North Kivu to protest the failure of the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to provide security in the region.
• More roadside traffic ticket generating speed cameras have been attacked in recent weeks, in South Arica and France. Spain has moved on to using drones instead.
• There’s not a lot of meat on the bones here, but Andrew Leahey connects the dots and shows how Trump’s contempt for paying his own taxes and his undermining of the prestige of government are likely to undermine “tax morale” in the United States with long-term consequences for how willing traditionally sheepish American taxpayers are to cough up their tribute.
• Researchers into the impact of the government “shutdown” last Winter found that it landed blows against IRS workers in the community they studied.

  Of the furloughed workers surveyed, more than 35% missed a rent or mortgage payment, 30% went to a food pantry, 72% experienced mental health issues, 42% wanted to make a career change and 65% were very or somewhat concerned about their finances post-shutdown.

  In the open-ended response portion of the survey, an employee wrote, “We are U.S.A. citizens that have families to support. Often we hear we deserve it, because we work for IRS. We are doing a job that is dictated by Congress. It is surprising how people seem to want others to hurt. It is sort of sickening.”

  Another employee described going back to work during tax season: “With a month of catch up at my busiest season, it is so stressful. This is the first time in 15 years I am exhausted after work and do not want to go in the mornings. That was never the case before.”