Here’s a bit more about the tireless paleocon tax resister Vivien Kellems. This comes from the edition of The News of the Tonawandas:
Miss Kellems Refuses to Pay Social Security
Stonington, Conn. (UP) — Vivien Kellems, veteran campaigner against “socialistic” federal tax laws, refused today to pay the new Social Security tax on self-employed persons and recruited four other small employers to join her tax strike.
Miss Kellems, who owns a cable grip factory here, sent a letter to Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder with her income tax return, pointing out that she had not included the $81 due for the new tax. She told Snyder that she carried “adequate insurance” and did not wish “further coverage.”
“It will clarify the whole matter if you will please indict me and let us submit this law to the Supreme Court, in the traditional American manner, in order to test its constitutionality,” she told Snyder.
Has 4 Followers
Miss Kellems made public similar letters to Snyder written by John F. Andrews, a Beach City, O., auctioneer; Ralph Bly of the Bly Auto Supply Co., Shelby, O.; Thomas Gaskins, owner of Cypress Knee Products, Palmdale, Fla.; and Mrs. Mary D. Cain, owner-editor of the weekly Summit Sun, Summit, Miss.
Because they are their own bosses, the small business owners are required to pay their own Social Security taxes by means of the self-employment tax. They are supposed to deduct Social Security taxes from their employes’ wages, too, but Gaskins told Snyder he would not do that for his two employes.
“The reason for not paying is because we believe this law to be unconstitutional,” he wrote. “for those of us who still have confidence in our own ability (to take care of personal security), such a socialistic thing should not be forced upon us.”
Treasury Department spokesmen in Washington said that “several” persons have refused to pay Social Security taxes. They said revenue agents would be assigned to investigate as soon as their tax returns, which are due at , are checked.
She Withholds Now
Miss Kellems announced the names of her fellow dissidents yesterday in Bridgeport, Conn., at a rally of the Liberty Belles, a national women’s action organization which she founded . One of the Liberty Belles’ objectives is to repeal the personal income tax and the Social Security law.
Miss Kellems’ feud with the Internal Revenue Department dates from when she refused to deduct income tax from the pay checks of her employes because “no one has paid me to be a tax collector.” She asked the government to prosecute her for criminal violation of the revenue code, but the Treasury Department merely attached her property, taking $7819 it said she owed in back taxes and fines.
The 55-year-old manufacturer sued the government for return of her property in a Hartford, Conn., Federal Court and recovered $6133. The government asked for a dismissal of the verdict but was rejected. Miss Kellems claimed a “moral victory” and then complied with the withholding tax law.
