How you can resist funding the government → a survey of tactics of historical tax resistance campaigns → reach out to potential resisters at the time and place of payment → Tax Day actions → 2006

See you at the West Oakland post office on .

Brooklyn, NY — Taxpayers rushing to the IRS or post offices on , will be greeted by signs and banners protesting the use of taxes for war. And, from Chico, California, to Fort Collins, Colorado, and Louisville, Kentucky, to Cambridge Massachusetts, members of the public will be asked to take a “penny poll,” by dropping coins into jars representing budget categories to show how they would like their tax money disbursed.

These informal penny polls show year after year that funding education, health care, and human resources are the highest priorities, with the Pentagon receiving a much smaller share. This result is consistent with a study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes where adult Americans favored increases in social spending and gave military spending the deepest cut averaging 31%.

With over $5 billion per month going to pay for war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the death toll in military personnel and civilians increasing each day, anger is rising over the gluttonous use of resources — human and monetary — consumed by war. In many cases the people holding the signs will be individuals who openly refuse to pay some or all of their income taxes because they cannot in good conscience pay for war.

Each year the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) collects a list of tax day actions to share with activists and the media. the list includes activities in over 35 cities and town. In Portland, Oregon, Berkeley, California, and Madison, Wisconsin, war tax resisters will publicly redirect their federal tax dollars to community organizations. Redirection is an intricate part of refusing to pay federal taxes to the IRS; resisters instead pay their taxes by giving the money to organizations that meet human needs, care for victims of war, and work for peace and justice.

Along with redirection ceremonies and vigils, hundreds of activists around the country will hand out informational leaflets detailing for passers-by how their income tax money is really used. The National Priorities Project calculates the cost of the Iraq war per household at $3,000, and the War Resisters League’s analysis of the Bush administration’s budget puts military spending at 49% of the federal budget.

Rebecca Nellenbeck of Ithaca, New York, made the decision to refuse to pay for war for the first time in . “There is so much money. There just isn’t enough to pay for endless, illegitimate, illegal, unjust wars and care for our children, not to mention pay for education and healthcare.” Rather than send her income tax money to the IRS, she chose to give it to a veterans’ hospital, her local post office and library, and a health care fund.

The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC), founded in , is a coalition of local, regional and national groups to provide information and support to people who are conscientious objectors to paying taxes for war.

New Hampshire’s “Making Waves” radio show, available on-line at the a-infos Radio Project, had a special “Death and Taxes” show .

Part 1 has coverage of the “penny poll” protest outside the Portsmouth, New Hampshire post office (50:39—57:34). Part 2 starts off with Geov Parrish asking “Why Pay Taxes?” (0:00—4:10) — this bit is also available as a separate download that is freely available for non-profit rebroadcast.

“Nobody should undertake tax resistance without understanding the risks. But there are also risks involved in passively cooperating with our own fleecing, or our own demise.” ―Geov Parrish

The Brattleboro Reformer reports on a group of tax resisters — including Daniel Sicken, Ellen Kaye, Bob Bady and Erik Schickendanz — who decided to write their checks to charity instead of to the U.S. Treasury :

In all, $5,000 was given to charities, including to the Windham County Reads program, to a group starting a community garden on Upper Dummerston Road and to the Citizens Awareness Network, a local activist group. ¶ Morningside Shelter received almost $800 from the tax resistors.

“We are opening a new building for homeless pregnant women and those who have just given birth,” said David Mattocks, the executive director of the shelter. “This is a significant contribution to that project.”

Daniel Sicken, an East Dummerston resident and a member of Tax Resisters of Conscience, said, though he pays local and state taxes, he hasn’t paid federal taxes in . He said giving the money instead to charity is much more appropriate.…

“But it’s hard to be a resistor,” said Sicken. “It has a lot of rewards, but also a lot of difficulties.” Sicken said though he has never been prosecuted for his failure to pay federal taxes, he and other resisters have had to learn to live with very little money or within the barter economy — trading goods and services for other goods and services.…

“Not paying taxes has liberated me from consumer society which has improved the quality of my life,” said Ellen Kaye, a 43-year-old Brattleboro resident who said she stopped paying federal taxes after a trip to Nicaragua in .

Kaye said she saw how her tax dollars were being used to kill innocent people and she was disgusted. She said when it came time to file her taxes that year, she became physically ill, thinking about where her money was going.

Her husband, Bob Bady, 53, of Brattleboro, said the last time he paid federal taxes was during the Vietnam war. He said though he was 18 at the time, he refused to serve in the military.

“And if I’m not willing to fight, why would I pay for someone else to fight for me?” asked Bady.