That UFPJ build on its endorsement of the Hang Up On War telephone tax resistance campaign (as proposed by Iraq Pledge of Resistance and endorsed at the last Assembly in Chicago) with a direct link from the UFPJ website and including the campaign in “what you can do” lists.
That UFPJ endorse the use of the Peace Tax Return put out by National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee this year.
The return offers options from sending in a protest form with tax payments to actually resisting some or all of income taxes that are due.
In addition, UFPJ could consider cosponsoring the form or helping create a form with many groups involved for tax season next year.
That UFPJ call for protest actions at IRS offices and post offices on .
National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee has collected information on actions around the country through its own network for decades and listed these in a press release and on our website.
With some assistance from volunteers we could expand this list and would ask UFPJ to link to it or put it on the UFPJ website.
list is still on the web at: www.nwtrcc.org/taxday2004.htm
I haven’t heard word yet whether or not this proposal was adopted at the assembly.
It isn’t asking for much: A link on a web page, an endorsement, a call for protest actions on .
The IRS has released some preliminary data about tax year , and these show that the increasing “lucky ducky” trend — the percentage of Americans living under the income tax line — has pretty much levelled off.
, the percentage of those households who filed their tax returns but were below the income tax line was in the 18%–25% range.
, the numbers have gone way up.
for which I have stats look like this:
Tax Year
Number of Zero-Tax Filers
Zero-Tax Filers as a Percent of All Filers
2004
42,500,000
32.6%
2005
43,800,000
32.6%
2006
45,700,000
33.0%
Almost a third of American households who filed tax returns paid no federal income tax at all for — either they paid none to begin with, or all of what they paid was returned to them as a refund.
An update on the legal taxable income baseline for and on how much income is exempt from IRS levies, a note about how some banks are charging exorbitant processing fees when they submit to a levy, and some other news about tax policy and enforcement changes.
News about a celebration of the Wally Nelson Centenary to be held in Massachusetts, brief notices of a few books that have been published recently by war tax resisters, some information on the activities of War Resisters International, and another call to order some fundraising message scarves while the weather cooperates.
Information about resources available to people promoting war tax resistance and/or the war tax boycott.
News, including an update about Steev Hise’s tax resistance film project, the new NWTRCC “Speaker’s Bureau”, a request for nominations for people to fill two seats on the NWTRCC administrative committee that will open in , and a call to begin a discussion on whether or not it would be a good idea for NWTRCC to endorse the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act.
An update from a new war tax resister, John Parrish who, along with his wife Kate, dipped their toes into the tax resistance pool with a token $50 resistance.
They were surprised and alarmed when the IRS shark came for the toes and took the whole leg — assessing a $5,000 “frivolous filing” penalty on John and then another one on Kate!
With the help of the folks at NWTRCC, their Congressman, and “the IRS Legislative Advocates” they managed to get the fines removed.
John tells the story.
Some news of interest to war tax resisters in particular:
C.J. Hinke has a book coming out: Free Radicals: War Resisters in Prison. Here’s an excerpt.
You can also follow the PrisonWarResisters blog which contains a lot of good accounts of mid-twentieth-century conscientious objection in the United States.
The entries touch on war tax resistance from time to time, mostly in passing, but include information about the tax resistance stands of Juanita & Wally Nelson, Ernest & Marion Bromley, Eroseanna Robinson, Karl Meyer, and Art Harvey.
The Spanish anti-militarist group “Tortuga” has created a comic book to explain why and how to refuse to pay war taxes.
War tax resisters have been making the tactic known hither and yon, including at a Fellowship of Reconciliation regional conference, a Fourth-of-July parade, a “People’s Budget” gathering, and the U.S. Social Forum; also, the New England Gathering of War Tax Resisters and Supporters is coming up in .
