It has been heartwarming to read the comments left by some of those who have signed the pledge so far:
After my son’s second deployment when he related to me the horrors of the
occupation in Iraq, I vowed I would do whatever it took to end it.
As we urge our lawmakers to stop funding the war, we have to be willing to do the same.
It is time we stop funding with our tax dollars.
Tina Richards, founder, Grassroots America
The world and history will judge us by how vigorously we resist the
illegal and immoral war tactics of the Bush Administration.
My husband, friends and I have decided we can’t pay for war anymore.
Jodie Evans, Cofounder, Code Pink
I won’t pay my taxes if you won’t pay yours.
Nina Rothschild Utne,
Utne Reader
We should stop the war, whatever it takes.
If withholding our income taxes
is a way to do it, I am all for that.
Lee Newman, Retired Captain.
U.S. Air Corp, World War Ⅱ
We must stop supporting policies that use our tax dollars to bring
violence around the world.
Not one cent more.
Maricela Guzman, Iraq War Veteran U.S. Navy,
I am one of the majority of Americans who want the war to end and
will be happy to pay my taxes when democracy and the rule of law and the Constitution is restored to our once great nation.
Steve Savitch, Tuscon, Arizona
I increased my deductions to 10 .
I
am so glad for this movement to show me what to do next and for the safety in numbers.
I will no longer help kill people.
andee Scott, Pacific Grove, California
We must renew the American Revolutionary Spirit.
We must have a Velvet
Revolution to save America.
Theadora de Soyza, New Rochelle, New York
If our leaders won’t stop this travesty, then We, the People
must
anonymous, Oregon, Wisconsin
Stop feeding the bush war machine… if he thinks the war is so damn
important why aren’t his daughters on the front lines?
Gina Arcuri, Barneveld, New York
Time to act for justice and do the right thing.
I refuse to pay a war
tax!
Herb Gonzales, Jr., San Antonio, Texas
We must have the courage to take a stand.
If enough of us will take this
stand, I believe this government will listen.
Leo Anderson, Austin, Texas
I will not pay my taxes to support the war in Iraq.
Renata Ahmed,
Brooklyn, New York
As a matter of conscience I will not voluntarily pay my hard earned money
to a government whose daily order of business is waging war.
Michael Zargarov, Houston, Texas
When government is out-of-control, citizens must exert
control.
Den Mark Wichar, Vancouver, Washington
I refused to pay for an illegal war.
It is unconscionable and disgusting
that U.S. Congress continues to fund President Bush’s war-crimes.
anonymous, Ewa Beach, Hawaii
I am so impressed and proud of your actions.
Blessed be.
Vicki
Noble, Freedom, California
I may not have much to withhold, but it’s all worth it!
It’s time to stop
this crap…
Daniel Bryan, Granc Blanc, Michigan
Hell nay, I won’t pay!
Avi Peterson, San Francisco, California
United we stand; divided we fall.
Kristine Abney, Salt Spring
Island, British Columbia
Taxation without representation.
Let’s fight this together and start
restoring democracy.
Shawn DeFrance, Dallas, Texas
Throw the tea into the harbor.
70% of the American people oppose this war.
That constitutes taxation without representation.
It is time to throw the tea into the harbor.
Coincidentally, that is exactly what I have been saying.
Let’s have a tea party.
Bobi Meola, Berkeley, California
We are retired and don’t pay any tax.
I fully support your courageous
efforts to end this bloody occupation.
Chris Caldwell, Anaheim, California
Yes and though dangerous, I pledge to join in not paying the 7%
taxes!
Nat Vance, Muskogee, Oklahoma
I will not pay my taxes if we bomb Iraq.
I will not pay my taxes if we
bomb Afghanistan.
I will not pay my taxes if we bomb Nicaragua.
I will not pay my taxes if we bomb Vietnam.
I will not pay my taxes if we bomb Laos.
I will not pay my taxes if we bomb Cambodia.
Therefore, I don’t pay my taxes.
Dani Visalli, Winthrop, Washington
Spend my tax dollars on the good of the nation, not
war.
Jennifer Chacon, Portland, Oregon
Together we can bleed the war machine dry by using this non-violent civil
disobedience.
anonymous, Modesto, California
Already had planned to put all of my taxes for
in escrow.
Refusing to pay 7% is a good start, but is it really impacting enough?
As Michael Venturi suggests, they will only borrow from the resources for our poor to kill their poor.
The war will continue, and the 7% will be stolen from the ‘lock-box.’
Alan Scouten, Charlottesville, Virginia
Thank you for organizing this.… It is time to act.
CodePink consistently
does excellent work.
anonymous, Olympia, Washington
‘A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military
defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.’
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Thomas Fatone, Brooklyn, New York
Bravo.
I have been advocating for just this to happen for several
years.
Duncan Dow, South San Francisco, California
Cherish the people, defund the military machine.
Doug Mackenzie,
Los Gatos, California
This is a great idea.
Next a national strike!
Claire Chang, Gill,
Massachusetts
I already signed onto NWTRCC’s War Tax Boycott, refused to file for and have quit my full-time job to live below the taxable
threshold.
If Congress won’t defund the war, the last bulwark of democracy, The People, must.
NTodd Pritsky, Cambridge, Vermont
This is a bandwagon that most Republicans should hop onto since they abhor
paying taxes.
Alert everyone you know about this cause there is larger safety in larger numbers.
Laura Martin, Clarkson, Georgia
Let’s protest with our dollars this time.
Maria Kanaan, Chicago,
Illinois
Thank you all!
If Congress wimps out by giving Bush more $$, than we must
not provide it.
Enough!
I refuse to pay for murder.
Friend Burton, St.
Louis, Missouri
Time to defund the war.
Larry Harper, Sebastopol, California
I consider myself in good company — like all the ‘traitors’ who fought off
British control and taxation without representation, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Friend Johnson, Cedar Falls, Iowa
Let’s put our money where our mouths are — since Congress doesn’t have the
courage to stop funding war — the people will.
Susan Eleuterio, Highland, Indiana
Things have to change with this disastrous war and administration, and
women will be the ones to do it.
Joni Goodale, Orlando, Florida
In a governmental system based on money and corporate profits, the most
effective form of protest comes from withholding payment of taxes.
Daniel Woodham, Greensboro, North Carolina
Thank You!
It is about time… I am so ready to join those who are ready to
live their convictions.
Tighe Barry, Santa Monica, California
With 50% of the federal budget being used for military purposes, I cannot
in good conscience pay for war while praying for peace.
Lincoln Rice, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
I will refuse to pay taxes for war even if fewer than 100,000 people
pledge because I cannot in conscience pay for these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Peter Smith, South Bend, Indiana
It’s about time citizens used their green to bring peace.
Heli
Taylor, Los Angeles, California
Not one more dollar!
Deidra Lynch, Orlando, Florida
And this is just from those who have signed up by the beginning of !
Some bits and pieces from around the web:
The War Resisters League plans to blockade the IRS headquarters on .
“Just as military recruiters supply the bodies for the war, the IRS supplies the funding.
We call on all war opponents to help dramatize our opposition and to disrupt business as usual by joining this nonviolent blockade.”
Every year as people start getting their W-2s and 1099s and start thinking about filing their taxes, the IRS likes to put a high-profile tax evasion arrest or conviction in the headlines, to keep us from getting any funny ideas about not coughing up our tribute.
This year, they chose a case with star power: prosecuting Wesley Snipes on felony conspiracy charges after he refused to file or pay taxes for several years based on his adherence to fantastic tax protester arguments.
Unfortunately for them, the headlines came out all wrong:
It didn’t go quite as well for Snipes as these headlines suggest.
As Neil Buchanan points out, “Notwithstanding the focus on the acquittal for the felony counts, the jury did convict on 3 misdemeanors.
Although it is unlikely that Snipes will receive the 3-year maximum jail time, he might well serve some time in jail; so this is hardly a case where a tax denier got off scot-free.
He does still owe the tax plus interest plus penalties; so for his efforts, Snipes will pay much more to the government than he otherwise would have, he’ll pay huge legal fees, and he’s been convicted of criminal offenses.”
But the IRS lost the deterrent effect that they hoped to get from “Snipes to Do Time on Tax Fraud Felonies” headlines.
To me, frugality is a game, a hobby, a competitive blood sport between me and the government with their running-dog State-privileged corporations.
And it is a sport at which I excel!
Part of the reason I am able to enjoy frugality is because I don’t cut from my/our budget anything that I value more than I value the time it takes to produce or earn it.
We still travel abroad, I still pursue ethnic cooking, we indulge frequently in live theatre… But I don’t write much about the specifics of my various and many frugal strategies even though I am proud of them.
For example, with food prices soaring, last month I was able to cut an additional 20% out of an-already-frugal grocery budget and I did so without sacrificing the foods — including luxury ones — that we enjoy.
Again, frugality doesn’t mean giving up a single thing you truly value; it means discovering exactly what it is you value and, then, finding a way to afford it comfortably… and legally I should quickly add.
Don’t fear that you are alone.
You aren’t. And while the IRS is a big scary bureaucratic matrix of control, consider how many bombs you had to dodge on your way to work or the supermarket or kids’ basketball practice today.
None?
Then you’re doing much better than the Iraqis.
Isn’t taking a small chance with the tax man the minimum sacrifice we can make as individuals who want to stop the murder?
The White House proposed a new budget.
You probably won’t be shocked to hear that vast increases in military spending are in the works.
Fred Kaplan and Winslow T. Wheeler have done a good job of running the numbers to show that it’s even worse than you’d guess from what you read in the papers.
Even if you’re not a squeamish peacenik who looks at expensive armaments and worries about those who will be on the receiving end you should be appalled at the corruption, pork, and waste.
Some bits-and-pieces from around the web:
Susan Balzer writes about Mennonite war tax resisters for the Mennonite Weekly Review.
Some of the resisters mentioned: Tim Godshall, Willard and Mary Swartley, Ray Gingerich, Harold A. Penner, John and Janet Stoner, Albert and Mary Ellen Meyer, Don Kaufman, Titus and Linda Gehman Peachey, and Stan Bohn.
A Tax Tea Party Revolt will be the only recourse available in the wake of efforts to not provide equal treatment to all citizens under law …
This means gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people will not be filing taxes April 15th.
War tax resister NTodd Pritsky at Pax Americana takes note of the prosecution of a tax evader and wonders if this is going to be his eventual fate as well.
Pritsky is resisting both federal and state taxes (as a war tax resister, he is protesting state complicity in the military industrial complex and in the wars via the state national guard).
Fighting this battle on two fronts takes a lot of energy, and he’s not sure it’s worth it.
In addition to the
NWTRCC
National Gathering coming up in Cleveland in
, there are two regional war tax
resister gatherings coming up:
The 24th Annual New England Gathering of War
Tax Resisters and Supporters.
The first South-East gathering of War Tax Resisters.
A weekend of workshops and presentations will be held in coordination
with the “Alternative New Year” gathering and vigil near the Kings Bay
Trident nuclear submarine base at the Georgia/Florida border, at the
beginning of . For details, contact
Clare Hanrahan.
Nathaniel “NTodd” Pritsky reflects more on his decision to run up the white flag and surrender his state taxes, in his post “Render To Vermont The Things That Are Vermont’s.” He reached an agreement with the State prosecutor to pay the taxes he had been resisting, and shares with us how the throwing-in-the-towel process works.
Much of this process has been amicable since I signaled I would not fight the State.
I didn’t retain counsel, which seemed a complete waste in this context, and everything went smoothly.
Were I to continue my non-compliance things would go very differently, but this was a tactical retreat and I sought to avoid complications.
Despite the fears oft expressed by others when I mention tax resistance, prison is never inevitable if you understand the long, methodical process and where the point of no return lies — no seeking jail time for me at this juncture.
I have other concerns to engage me today: the birth and care of my son being primary.
I never expected this particular tactic to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nor bring the Military Industrial Complex to its knees.
And while I’d hoped that maybe some people would join in WTR as part of the national boycott movement — particularly if they saw a coward like me who loathes change and confrontation get involved — I didn’t delude myself into thinking 150 million Americans would suddenly stick it to The Tax Man.
One can say this experiment was a failure in that it didn’t achieve unrealistic goals that I never set.
Yet for me, as Quixotic as the exercise was, it was a success.
It allowed me to withdraw consent in a very tangible way, put my concerns on official record, prove to myself that I could take some risks, etc. The entire multi-year experience has also taught me quite a bit about many things: how other resisters live, how other people react when you discuss tax resistance and other forms of dissent, how the interactions with state apparatus work, what my own limits are, and what ways I might adjust my approach in the future, amongst other things.
Some bits-and-pieces from here-and-there:
Not all tax resistance has to do with grand global issues or conscientious objection; some is just the protest of people who feel they’re getting shafted by a government that takes too much and provides too little.
Case in point: Scott Frisby of Southend.
He says the government has failed to provide even the minimum of services, and so he’s dropping his subscription (or at least 25% of it).
Scroll down to the bottom to read the hilarious response from Southend Council’s customer service department.
The Indianapolis Baptist Temple started refusing to pay federal taxes in , when pastor Gregory Dixon “decided the church would break all ties with the government and no longer act as its agent in withholding taxes from its employees,” citing Constitutional freedom of religion as his mandate for taking his church out from under Uncle Sam’s thumb.
For several years, nothing came of this defiance, but in the early 1990s, the IRS started seeking back taxes, eventually filing liens against the church and against Dixon. The church fought back in court, but lost a series of appeals, finally getting turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court in .
Here’s the story, with links to the court opinions.
A populist form of tax resistance is aimed at speed and red-light cameras that scan license plates of offending vehicles, snap photos of the drivers, and automatically issue traffic tickets.
These cameras are more a revenue-raising program than a safety-encouraging one, and they’re causing lots of resentment.
A driver has racked up dozens of speeding tickets in photo-radar zones on Phoenix-area freeways while sporting monkey and giraffe masks, and is fighting every one by claiming the costumes make it impossible for authorities to prove he was behind the wheel.
It took Arizona state police months to realize the same driver was involved and was refusing to pay the fines.
By the time they did, more than 50 of the tickets had become invalid because the deadline for prosecution had passed.
Arizona began deploying the stationary and mobile cameras on state highways a year ago, and through had issued more than 497,000 tickets.
Of those, about 132,000 recipients had paid the fine of $165 plus a 10 percent penalty, netting the state more than $23 million.
Arizona is the first to deploy such technology on highways statewide.
Many of the remaining tickets are either new, being appealed or have just been ignored. The state didn’t have figures immediately available on the breakdown.
The backlash against the cameras has been fairly constant, however.
Arizonans have used sticky notes, Silly String and even a pickax to sabotage the cameras.
Many believe the shooting death of speed-enforcement van operator Doug Georgianni on on a Phoenix freeway was a result of anger over the cameras, although authorities haven’t made that direct allegation.
“It’s a peaceful act of resistance — that’s what this country was founded on,” VonTesmar said. “I’m not thumbing my nose at DPS, but photo radar is not a DPS officer protecting public safety.
It’s nothing but a speed tax.”
