War Tax Resistance

[phloem]

After decades of consternation about war and military violence, and at least several years of consideration about my tax contributions to those government actions, I have decided to take the leap of faith. I'm sending the following letter to the IRS (and copied to my "representatives" in government) instead of a check for my tax debt.

I'm curious to know how others approach this particular issue of conscience.

To: The Internal Revenue Service

I am informing the Internal Revenue Service that I am withholding my entire 2009 federal income tax liability as a matter of personal conscience, values, and spiritual beliefs. My tax of $XXX will be re-directed to an organization that will deposit these funds into an account for the purpose of promoting peace and serving human needs as an alternative to my paying to support violence, warfare, murder of innocent civilians, and military occupation of the lands of indigenous people and sovereign nations.

Unfortunately, to date, the federal government has not seen fit to provide for those of us who are morally, ethically, and conscientiously opposed to warfare, militaristic repression, environmental destruction, and violence an alternative to paying taxes for these illicit, immoral, and generally illegal government actions. I have no problem paying taxes to benefit humanity, to provide for a healthy and functioning environment, and to generally fulfill the promise of the U. S. Constitution to provide for the welfare of the American people. However, I refuse to pay a single cent of my tax to support murder and destruction at the behest of the American military and its corporate masters who profit from the bloodshed of innocent people around the world every single day. I will continue to support the Campaign for a National Peace Tax Fund and other groups that better represent my personal values and conscience than does the government of the United States of America.

Currently, about 48% of the federal budget is allocated to military expenditures, at a time the United States desperately needs funding for homes, jobs, food, health care, and other basic necessities. The abject failure of American presidents, the U. S. Congress, and the judicial system to abide by basic human values and to provide for the needs of the nation’s citizens amply demonstrates that the real purpose of government is to serve the needs of capitalistic enterprise, also known as greed, abetted by increasingly obscene expenditures on the machinations of militarism and warfare. Such expenditures, and such political philosophies, are anathema to peace, productivity, and human survival.

While I acknowledge, in refusing to pay my federal income tax, that I am in violation of a law devised, written, and passed by the various political representatives of the corporate-military-government hierarchy for the purposes of extending its rule and subjugation of the people’s will, I am bound to a more inalienable allegiance to basic human rights, to the need for functioning global ecology, and to the freedom of choice to bear my conscientious beliefs without reprisal from government. No law devised or written by a human being, or corporation, or government, supersedes the fundamental law that violence and harm to other human beings, and to the life-sustaining forms and processes inherently functional in global ecosystems, are unacceptable. When perpetrated against other humans, their cultures and rights to self-determination, and the environment, and based on corporate-promoted greed and implemented through lies, deceptions, torture, and other ethical deviations, these acts of violence and destruction are criminal. I therefore refuse to participate willfully in the commission of the greater crimes that would, in part, be carried out by my tax payment to the U. S. government, and will continue to resist the insanity and inhumanity carried out by that government for the purposes of subjugating and destroying people and the earth upon which we depend for life.

[Braggi]

phloem,

While I very much support the attitude and fortitude you're expressing here, I hope you'll reconsider and work within the minimal legal parameters available.

If you do choose to follow this course of action, at least do this: go ahead and file your tax return, including filling it out in all the detail you normally would. There is actually a law requiring us to file our tax forms. You can get along for about three years without doing it and then the State of California will come down on you and you will be arrested and prosecuted. It's not worth the trouble and you can avoid it by filing your forms on time.

The federal and state govts. will still start charging you penalties and interest at a whopping rate but I think by filing you prevent the worst part of prosecution even if you don't send them any money.

A lawyer will have to corroborate what I'm saying because I'm not sure it's still correct, but that's the way it was back in the '80s when I was a foolish "tax protester." I don't like that I have a criminal record, BTW. I sure wish I didn't. It cost me about $40,000 to catch up in the taxes and penalties for those few silly years. Now, 30 years later, I want to apply for some licensing with my friends in the government(s) and I'm afraid my record may cause me problems.

-Jeff

[phloem]

Jeff,
thank you for sharing your perspective. I have filed, and owe no State tax for the past year. I also filed my federal forms, minus the check for what I owe. I accept whatever penalties I might have coming. However, the various accounts I've learned from others is not nearly as dire as your experience indicates. At some point, I will likely have the opportunity to re-consider whether to pay the tax or have my funds requisitioned by the feds, but for now my rejection of payment is already done.

About the "minimum legal parameters available": I'd like to know what these are, since I've been supporting a peace tax fund for over 20 years, and voiced my objections to paying taxes for war to my "reps" for more than 30 years. I contribute what I can to reduce my taxable income, and volunteer a lot of time in order to claim mileage and expenses, in addition to those incurred by my business. What other parameters do you know about?

For my part, I'm acting from years of contemplation about my conscientious objection, so in no way would I characterize my actions as "foolish." On the contrary, I consider the bulk of the population who don't even stop to consider the wanton waste of their tax dollars on death and destruction a hell of a lot more foolish than my humble attempt to register my objection to the insanity of violence perpetrated on behalf of imperialistic greed.

I'm sorry you regret your past actions, but in acting from a clear conscience, I doubt I'll have any such regrets. I guess I thought my letter made clear that answering to an authority (conscience) of higher moral imperative than the laws devised, implemented, and enforced by the status quo of greed and violence was worth whatever consequences I might eventually face. My only regret will be that millions more innocent people will still die while Americans continue to bury their heads in the sands of their consumptive ignorance, apathy, and intolerance. Oh yeah, one more regret: that I alone lack the power to bring down the ignominious hypocrisy and deceitful treachery that is American government.

phloem,

While I very much support the attitude and fortitude you're expressing here, I hope you'll reconsider and work within the minimal legal parameters available.

If you do choose to follow this course of action, at least do this: go ahead and file your tax return, including filling it out in all the detail you normally would. There is actually a law requiring us to file our tax forms. You can get along for about three years without doing it and then the State of California will come down on you and you will be arrested and prosecuted. It's not worth the trouble and you can avoid it by filing your forms on time.

The federal and state govts. will still start charging you penalties and interest at a whopping rate but I think by filing you prevent the worst part of prosecution even if you don't send them any money.

A lawyer will have to corroborate what I'm saying because I'm not sure it's still correct, but that's the way it was back in the '80s when I was a foolish "tax protester." I don't like that I have a criminal record, BTW. I sure wish I didn't. It cost me about $40,000 to catch up in the taxes and penalties for those few silly years. Now, 30 years later, I want to apply for some licensing with my friends in the government(s) and I'm afraid my record may cause me problems.

-Jeff