Some notes from this discussion are included on the new NWTRCC page, along with the following:
George Salzman’s “Inheritance and Social Responsibility” — about how he creatively used an inheritance in socially productive ways while keeping the IRS’s hands off of it.
A debate on interest between Juanita Nelson and Bob Irwin. Nelson sees interest on loans and bank deposits and such as inherently unethical, Irwin disagrees.
Another collection of writings looks at various issues associated with Nonprofits and Tax-Exempt Status. While becoming tax-exempt and then defending your tax-exempt status may seem like it should be a no-brainer for folks who are tax resisters, tax exempt status comes with strings attached and may be more trouble than it is worth.
Around the middle of April as the federal income tax filing deadline
approaches, tax resistance articles hit the media frequently. Here are some
examples from past years:
War tax resister Irwin Hogenauer hasn’t filed a tax return for 35 years. (don’t miss the ad below the article for a special on the Sony Walkman: only $89.00)
An op-ed piece by Horace G. Davis on personal entanglement with the military-industrial complex includes notes on Raymond Hunthausen and some of the publications of the war tax resistance movement.
Clare Hanrahan is redirecting her taxes to a group that helps the homeless. “We’re not evading taxes. We’re redirecting them and putting them where they’ll do the most good, immediately.” Also quotes Karen Marysdaughter.
The report counts 3,300 people who have been fooled by phony IRS agents who call them up to threaten them about a tax debt and get them to send money to the scammers.
The scam has netted something like $16.8 million.
These figures may be understating the problem, as some people who got fooled probably haven’t spoken up about it.
The IRS rehired 141 former employees who had had “prior substantiated conduct or performance issues” “including [such issues as] willfully failed to file their tax returns… unauthorized access to taxpayer information, leave abuse, falsification of official forms, unacceptable performance, misuse of IRS property, and off-duty misconduct.”
And nearly 20 percent of these also had such issues filed against them after having been rehired.
Most curious to me is that when the IRS had this pointed out to them, their response was to say that they see no reason to change their hiring practices.
I still think the whole IRS scandal involving the screening of Tea Party groups that were trying to game the nonprofit system to engage in electioneering was largely bullshit.
But whether from arrogance or incompetence or from more conniving motives, the agency is sure acting like it’s covering up something.
Bullshit or not, the agency is doing as much as its enemies to keep the scandal alive.
She put in a plug for the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund bill, the latest in
a series of peace tax fund legislation ideas, and then discussed her own
resistance:
I first became a war tax resister when I connected paying the federal
telephone tax with paying for the Vietnam War. Unlike my male peers, I didn’t
need to fear being physically drafted to fight. However, by voluntarily paying
taxes designated for war, I risked complicity with the military.
When I ask people if their conscientious objection extends to paying for war,
I hear a variety of answers, all based on fear: “I can’t control what the
government does with my tax money. If I resist, the government will just come
and get my money anyway. It will get even more, if I have to pay penalties and
interest. Besides, it’s illegal to not pay my share of taxes. And I don’t want
to go to jail.”
Others say, “What difference can I make? It’s too much of a hassle. I don’t
want to face an audit. I [or my institution or business] may suffer if donors
or customers see us as radicals.” And the clincher: “We don’t want to do
something controversial that might affect our work for peace.”
Karen Marysdaughter, former director of the National War Tax Resistance
Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC),
asks, “Which do you fear most — what will happen to you if you refuse to pay
war taxes, or the effect that paying for war has on people who are dying?”
NWTRCC
publishes information helpful to anyone counting the costs of war tax
resistance. And
NWTRCC
members encourage and support each other at biennial meetings. Our church,
which values community and nonconformity to the world, can learn much from
NWTRCC.
A unique opportunity to do just that happens
. For the first time, an
international conference on war tax issues will be held in the United States.
Mennonite participation with the people and issues at this conference could
set the pace for our peace witness in the 21st century…
A concerted decision to practice conscientious objection to military taxation
will greatly advance our mission to bring Christ’s healing and hope to the
world.
This was accompanied by an info-box with details about the upcoming conference.
John K. and Janet Stoner shared their letter to the
IRS
in the issue in which they
announced their withholding of a token $10 from their taxes “as a witness to
God’s call to preserve human life and not to kill.” They followed this with
talk about the Nuremberg trials and the necessity of disobedience that strikes
me as broadly true, but so bold in its implications that a $10 token act of
resistance looks kind of pathetic next to it. Be that as it may…
An article on the Zacchaeus-the-tax-collector episode in the gospel according to Luke
by Marlin Jeschke, from the
edition, stood out to me because of the matter-of-fact way the article asserts
that “Jesus’ overall position concerning the Roman occupation” included
“rejecting tax resistance.”
Editor J. Lorne Peachey penned
a
middle-of-the-road some say this but others say that editorial that touched
on war tax resistance, insisting that “We must… become more intentional in our
actions,” but never quite intending anything specific himself beyond
“supporting each other in ways we believe the Spirit is leading us.”
Larry Leaman-Miller penned a letter to the editor that appeared in the
issue that (for effect?)
presented the taxpayer complicity dilemma as something new that Mennonites
ought to consider and try to come up with some sort of solution for:
Colombian Mennonite leader Ricardo Esquivia, as quoted in the
issue, said bluntly to American Christians, “Through your tax dollars you are
supporting war” (“Colombian Leader Challenges Churches”). He was referring to
the recently approved $1.3 billion of
U.S. aid to
Colombia, most of it earmarked for the Colombian military.
Esquivia’s comment raises anew questions about our Mennonite peace witness. In
preparation for a recent presentation on nonviolence, I discovered that the
United States spends roughly three times as much annually on its military
budget as Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya and Syria
combined — the countries usually pointed to as our greatest potential enemies.
Forty-seven percent of our federal budget in
will go to military needs.
We are spending almost as much defending the nation as we are on the nation we
are defending. Actually, this kind of spending has little to do with defending
and perhaps everything to do with political, corporate and military attempts
to dominate key areas of the world.
And all this occurs without any of us having to face a draft and the specter
of personal involvement. In this age of high-tech weapons, our bodies are no
longer needed; now it’s our dollars. I struggle to know how our peace theology
speaks to this changed situation.
I wonder if people in the future will ask, “How could they have paid so
passively?” Ricardo Esquivia has seen firsthand in Colombia the violent
results of some of our payments. I think we need to ponder his words
seriously.
Could we have chosen alternatives that are legal? Could we give more to
charity, making less tax obligation? Could we instead do educational
witnessing by handing out charts at the post office on April 15 showing that
almost half the national budget goes for past and present military programs?
Could we write legislators who make tax laws rather than to the
IRS,
which merely implements them? Yes. We have also done those kinds of
witnessing.
What were the consequences of diverting part of our income tax payments to
war relief and prevention agencies? Courteous ignoring.
After several months the
IRS may
send a letter ignoring what we said but helpfully suggesting that we can ease
the financial strain by paying in installments. We explain again that poverty
is not the problem but that we are trying to live as Christians. Months later
a reply tells us that if we pay by a certain date we can avoid more interest
and penalty charges. The correspondence continues with us sharing our deepest
convictions and
IRS
sending polite computer-generated notifications.
Finally, notification comes that the money owed will be taken from our bank
account. We are not surprised, since this is what has happened for more than
20 years.
Financially, the cost has been affordable. When penalties and interest are
added, we usually are charged about 20 percent more than what we diverted to
peace and relief groups. We accept this as a cost of witnessing and are glad
we can still afford to do it.
In earlier years,
IRS
correspondence contained warnings of unspecified severe penalties, but now
this happens less often. When
IRS
letters listed 800 numbers for further contact, we called, and staff listened
politely. Once we were allowed an interview. Contacts were courteous — once
with opposing arguments and once with sympathy — but usually patient listening
by people dealing with problem taxpayers.
Is this a worthwhile, valuable witness to the Jesus way? We believe it
is. People from other countries suffering from
U.S. policies are
encouraged when they hear there is this kind of Christianity in the United
States. Maybe our witness reduces resistance to Christian missionaries who are
identified with
U.S. self-interest
and militarism.
Paradoxically, these people also admire a government that allows this kind of
dissent, which is not permitted in their countries.
Christians who find themselves living in a superpower have a special
responsibility. Though this responsibility of ours seems an impossible task,
God has ways to heal the addicted. When people have stopped being
co-dependents and no longer support the habit, addicts have been helped to
recover.
Some links from here and there:
Rutgers International Institute for Peace has begun releasing a Digital Library of Nonviolent Resistance with items from their archives. Among these is Organizing Tax Resistance, co-written by a team from Nonviolence International and Karen Marysdaughter from NWTRCC.
The Delta Amacuro (Venezuela) state Chamber of Commerce has launched a tax strike to protest what they say are extralegal and “confiscatory” municipal taxes.
The Nkafu branch of La Société Civile has signed on to the latest tax resistance campaign in the east Congo to protest the government’s inability or unwillingness to provide security in the region.
In other news, the group ADNic is promoting a Nicaraguan tax resistance / consumer strike campaign with a series of graphics. Here are some examples (translations mine):
Tax resistance: Education and Outreach. Step 5: Take an active role in tax resistance and keep in mind that Ortega uses your taxes to kill. #ConsumerStrike #SOSNicaragua
Tax Resistance. This Is Their Profit. Rum: 36%, Beers: 42%, Liquors: 37%, Grain alcohol: 42%, Cigarettes: 309%, Tobacco: 43%. By reducing your consumption you strike a direct blow against the regime. Taxes are their lifeblood! #ConsumerStrike, National Unity
