text:
New NWTRCC Newsletter Out; IRS Threatens Passport Revocation
Some links from here and there:
There's a new National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee newsletter out, with content that includes:
Joining an "Extinction Rebellion" protest — Ruth Benn says that while XR is "a little too focused on its own brand" there may be some common ground to be found with the climate emergency protesters and the war tax resistance movement.
Mennonite Church creates a "Peace Tax Fund" — a report back from the Mennonite Church USA national gathering, where a war tax redirection fund was relaunched.
Joseph Olejak reflects on what he did when his war tax resistance led the government to revoke his professional license.
Suzanne Belote Shanley and Brayton Shanley of the Agape Community interviewed.
American anti-abortion tax resister Michael E. Bowman is back in the news. Among the latest details are that Bowman was first targeted by the IRS because of his involvement in a tax protest scheme cooked up by Joseph Saladino. He is trying a Religious Freedom Restoration Act defense (which is also a long-shot contemplated by some U.S. war tax resisters), and is also putting forward the theory that because he got away with not filing returns for eighteen years, he therefore had a reasonable belief that what he was doing was lawful. Bowman has had some success in court in the past, with a judge ruling that his actions of cashing his paychecks rather than depositing them (so as to avoid IRS levies) did not constitute criminal evasion.
The IRS seems to be getting more aggressive about trying to get passports revoked from people who have large tax debts. Under the law, if a taxpayer owes more than $52,000 and isn't doing anything about it, the agency is supposed to inform the State Department. The State Department is then required to not issue or renew a passport to the scofflaw, and may also revoke their existing passport. The IRS is trying to convince State to put that "may" to use. The agency says it plans to send out Letter 6152 ("Notice of Intent to Request U.S. Department of State Revoke Your Passport") to some tax delinquents, after which it will lobby the State Department to take stronger action (of this advice State can still, as far as I can tell, take it or leave it).
Attacks on traffic ticket radar robots continue, with French resisters disabling them as quickly as the government can prop them back up. Attacks have also taken place in recent weeks in Germany, England, and Spain.
How you can resist funding the government → a survey of tactics of historical tax resistance campaigns → destroy the apparatus of taxation → modern roadside apparatus in particular
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Not all tax resistance is nonviolent. There are also plenty of examples in which people have taken up arms against the taxing authority, have violently destroyed the apparatus of tax collecting, or have used threats of violence to intimidate or inhibit tax collectors.
Scott Frisby drops his subscription to crappy government services, the Indianapolis Baptist Temple loses a 16-year court battle defending religious tax resistance, War Resisters International releases a free handbook for nonviolent campaigns, automatic ticket-issuing red-light and speed cameras become targets for populist tax revolt, NTodd Pritsky shares some meditations on civil disobedience, and a government watchdog suspects that I.R.S. employees are issuing huge fraudulent refunds under the cover of bureaucratic confusion. Also: Aristotle looks at the "fairness" component of justice.
You're invited to the May NWTRCC national gathering in Tucson. Also: Rebecca and Her Daughters reemerge in Arizona. And: a neighborhood in Argentina opts out of the municipal tax system. Also: inmates in Florida swipe $100,000 from the I.R.S. while still behind bars.
The "bonnets rouges" are taking a page out of the Rebeccaite handbook and have destroyed dozens of tollgates in Brittany.
Tens of thousands of "bonnets rouges" demonstrated in France today against a so-called "eco-tax" — and reveled in highway blockades and tax portal destruction.
When government-run public transit fares leapt by 66% in Mexico City, commuters started to leap too in what has become a hopping mad protest movement. Also: the Bonnets Rouges continue to destroy traffic radar outposts in France — over 200 so far.
International tax resistance news from Italy, England, Greece, Brazil, and Catalonia.
An international overview of recent tax resistance news from Addis Ababa, Seattle, Suffolk County, Lagos, and Petroupolis.
Tax Day is coming up in the U.S. Find out what's happening near you. Also: a new option for low-income tax resisters in the U.S. And: an update on the tax resistance campaign in Zaragoza. Finally: a suspect in the destruction of a D.C. traffic-ticket camera becomes a folk hero.
A compilation of stories and videos chronicling the destruction or disabling of ticket-issuing traffic cameras by fed up citizens.
I'm back from vacationing in South America. While I was away: Claire Wolfe praised The Picket Line, war tax resisters in Biscay hit the streets, the Republicans tried to sneak in an I.R.S. budget increase, Google threw in the towel on not being evil, and people around the world took justice into their own hands against the traffic-ticket-issuing robots.
People in Nicaragua are refusing to pay taxes and fees to the government as part of a campaign to topple the Ortega-Murillo regime. Also: more attacks on speed cameras, magical thinking about taxes and government spending, voluntary donations to the U.S. government are falling. And: a new NWTRCC newsletter is out, with news from the U.S. war tax resistance movement.
Google backs off from helping to make the military's death drones smarter, other brands try to get a P.R. boost from bucking The Man. Also: tax resistance news from Nicaragua, South Africa, France, South Korea, and Ambazonia.
A call to strengthen tax resistance in Nicaragua, evading tobacco taxes in California, smashing ticket cameras, blue states fighting back against federal taxes, computer security at the I.R.S. is a mess, Catalan war tax resistance grows, a new call for tax resistance in Sri Lanka, and I get another letter from the I.R.S.
Tax resistance in the Nicaraguan struggle against the Ortega-Murillo regime. Surveying Chinese business students about tax evasion. Traffic-ticket-generating cameras vandalized around the world. Kenyan petroleum transporters strike against a new tax. And a city tax strike is proposed in La Rioja, Argentina.
Recent news regarding war tax resistance, tax resistance as practiced around the world, and tax administration follies in the United States.
War tax resisters fight tax breaks for weapons contractors, prank calls take down a government xenophobia hotline, what might happen if you try to stare down an I.R.S. summons, how to wield the "Taxpayer Bill of Rights," and the global grassroots campaign against traffic-ticket-generating robots continues.
An interactive map of the Rebecca Riots, a new tax rebellion in France, more protest and resistance in Greece, the U.S., South Africa, and New Zealand. Also: an audit of the I.R.S. includes a new estimate of the size of the "tax gap" and shows just how much unpaid tax the agency writes off as "uncollectible" each year.
The gilets jaunes movement in France, with its street protests and blockades, has been getting all the press — and has indeed forced significant and painful concessions from the government. But while the gilets jaunes were in the streets, they and their allies were also knocking traffic ticket cameras out of service — by the hundreds — at great cost to the government.
A documentary about war tax resister Larry Bassett, more news of I.R.S. failures, women take over the American military-industrial complex, speed camera destruction proceeds internationally, and more recent news of interest to tax resisters.
The I.R.S. says it will take at least a year to recover from the backlog, the disruption, and the devastation of employee morale caused by the government "shutdown." Meanwhile, the epidemic of traffic ticket camera destruction continues in France, and begins to spread beyond the borders.
Nicaraguan tax resistance leader Irlanda Jerez is being tortured in prison. Radar destruction continues at a slower pace in France. Julia Butterfly Hill interviewed on her war tax resistance. And: what is a tax resister to do in the face of tariffs?
The I.R.S. sent me nine envelopes yesterday, one for each tax year they're pursuing me for. Also: a U.S. anti-abortion tax resister has a court victory, Ruth Benn examines I.R.S. enforcement at a time of agency stress, California conservatives consider a tax strike, traffic ticket camera destruction continues worldwide, and more international tax resistance news.
Joffre Stewart — peacemaker, poet, anarcho-pacifist war tax resister, and legendary distributor of "incomprehensible leaflets" — has died. Also: the documentary film about war tax resister Larry Bassett has been released, lax I.R.S. enforcement makes tax compliance a sucker's game, what anti-abortion tax resister Michael Bowman's court victories really add up to, and the latest dispatches from the ongoing epidemic of speed camera destruction.
The War Resisters League's federal budget pie chart has been updated for the proposed 2020 budget. Also: find "Tax Day" actions in the U.S. And: war tax resisters demonstrate in Spain, yellow vests continue to disrupt France, and traffic camera destruction continues worldwide.
A new NWTRCC newsletter is out, with news and outreach tips for the upcoming Tax Day, among other things. Also: the New York Times takes a close look at how "sovereign citizens" use bureaucratic incantations and a curious mythology to milk the I.R.S. And: adding up how much traffic camera destruction has cost the French government in unissued traffic tickets.
Tax resistance news from France, Catalonia, Spain, the United States, Italy, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, and Saudi Arabia. Tax season in Spain and the United States has led to increased coverage of tax resistance campaigns there in particular.
Tax resistance news from all over the world, including also news from the U.S. war tax resistance movement and notes about declining taxpayer morale in the U.S. Also: some numbers have just been released about how many levies, liens, and property seizures the I.R.S. resorted to last year.
Switch to bitcoin to defund the war machine? Also: tax resistance news from Nicaragua, Indonesia, New Zealand, France, and Germany. And: the I.R.S. is redesigning its W-4 form, auditing much fewer wealthy people, and sometimes finding itself frustrated by bankrupt tax scofflaws.
The wealthy already pay high tax rates! (Sure, on that portion of income they aren't hiding off-shore.) Also: a new NWTRCC newsletter is out, attacks on traffic-ticket cameras continue, and a look back at war tax redirection from this date in 1973.
Nicaraguan tax resistance leader Irlanda Jerez released along with other political prisoners. An international war tax resistance conference is coming up. More international tax resistance news. The Republican tax law takes more from people, less from corporations. Also: the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. promoted war tax resistance in 1988, infuriating a U.S. congressman.
I get another letter from the I.R.S. The Mennonite Church considers a new proposal on war tax redirection. Former official Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson starts a private nonprofit Center for Taxpayer Rights. And the international guerrilla uprising against traffic ticket robots continues.
The Mennonite Church U.S.A. starts a redirection fund for churchmembers who are war tax resisters. An international conference on war tax resistance is upcoming in Edinburgh. The human war on traffic ticket robots continues. Facebook bans ads that discourage voting. Expatriate Americans consider renouncing citizenship to avoid tax burdens. Businesses in Pakistan go on strike over sales tax hike. And: mystery substance leads hazmat team to shut down Kansas City I.R.S. building.
London's "Extinction Rebellion" movement organizes a tax strike for ecological sustainability. Businesses in Pakistan shut their doors in an anti-sales-tax hartal. Human drivers assault traffic ticket robots around the world. And more news about the Mennonite Church USA decision to expand its war tax redirection fund.
London's "Extinction Rebellion" movement launches its tax strike for ecological sustainability. Speed camera radar outposts destroyed by determined drivers across Europe. Boris Johnson, prime minister, tax resister. Tax strikes threatened in Budalengi, Kenya and Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo to protest the government's inability to provide basic services.
Cofounders of the Agape Community interviewed. Tax strikes in Pakistan, Venice, Catalonia, and North Kivu. Continuing attacks on roadside traffic ticket robots. And how Trump is both destroying taxpayer morale and making life more miserable for I.R.S. workers.
A new videoblog introduces practical war tax resistance techniques. Anti-abortion tax resister Michael Bowman scores another courtroom triumph. Tireless activist and war tax resister Frances Crowe dies at age 100. Tax resisters in North Kivu organize. And attacks on traffic ticket cameras continue around Europe.
A tax resistance manual gets an on-line release. The war on traffic ticket cameras continues. War tax resisters profiled. Tax strikes in Venezuela and the D.R.C. Graphics promote and educate about a consumer strike and tax resistance campaign in Nicaragua.
A new NWTRCC newsletter is out. The I.R.S. tries to put some teeth in the government's new power to revoke passports from tax scofflaws. Local governments battle I.R.S. over lien-filing fees. And more news about tax resistance and tax resisters.
NWTRCC national gathering next weekend in Oregon. Nathan Goodman on the costs of American empire. A suspicious new tax resistance campaign. The war on traffic ticket cameras continues. I.R.S. liens and deceptive junkmail. Ed & Elaine "show me the law" Brown may get out of prison after all. And the government of Ontario battles Canada's federal government over carbon taxes.
Peter Bagge draws a delightful Lysander Spooner. Tax resistance is one of the tactics of an Economic Hurricane designed to boost Catalan independence. The I.R.S. blinks in its standoff with county recorders. And the human war on traffic-ticket generating robot camera hordes continue to keep hope alive in the hearts of the rebellion.
A Catalan restaurant whose owners have been resisting and redirecting Spanish taxes for years has been forced to close. Also: Coordination with environmental activism discussed at NWTRCC national meeting. And: American war tax resisters at the School of the Americas Watch gathering and the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 trial. Also: attacks on traffic-ticket-generating radar cameras continue.
The Arumeru tax revolt of 1998 was a rare show of determined people-power in Tanzania (or was it just political elites manipulating popular discontent for their own purposes?). Also: depot blockades in France over fuel tax hike, another call for a tax strike in North Kivu, 17,886 traffic-ticket-generating robots in France attacked by angry drivers, half the cigarettes smoked in New York are brought there by smugglers, and a hazmat scare at an I.R.S. office.
Hong Kong protesters use clever software to gum up the tax agency. Aristotle's guide to anarchism. A new NWTRCC newsletter. I.R.S. ramps up surprise in-person visits to tax scofflaws. Paula Rogge on how to defang I.R.S. reprisals against resisters. Lebanese business-owners threaten a tax strike. And the human war on traffic-ticket-generating cameras continues to take robot casualties.
War tax resisters in Canada, paying your taxes in a wagonload of nickles, speed camera vandals strike again, 50 years later a war tax redirection is still paying off, and the latest on the tax strike in Lebanon.
The I.R.S. filed another tax lien against me. The last two didn't seem to make any difference, so I don't expect much from this one. Also: videos from the recent international conference on war tax resistance and peace tax campaigns. And: more dispatches from the human war on traffic ticket generating camera robots.
Albertan politician David Swann has launched a tax strike to protest the government's unwillingness to pursue corporate tax dodgers from the fossil fuel industry. Also: how financial fraudsters peeled tens of billions of dollars from European governments; the human war on speed camera radars continues; the I.R.S. blinks in its stand-off with county governments; and a tax strike in Goma, North Kivu.
A speed radar replaced by a "rat d'art", American politicians are perhaps starting to come together on restoring funding for the I.R.S., a men's magazine calls for a nonpartisan U.S. tax strike, more tax resistance in Kivu, the latest figures on the cost of the war on Iraq, and what you'll find in the latest NWTRCC newsletter.
If the I.R.S. files a tax lien against you, prepare for a flood of junkmail. Also: another tax strike in South Kivu, attacks on traffic ticket robots in Italy and France, a hazmat team called to an Alabama I.R.S. office over a leaky international letter, a steadfast council tax rebel in Cornwall, and Crispin Sartwell on the foolishness of trying to tax our way to economic equality.
I got nine separate letters from the I.R.S. today, in a vivid demonstration of government waste. Also: tax strikers on the march in South Kivu, a varied arsenal attacks traffic ticket radars across Europe, and a new tax redirection campaign for Catalan independence.
Looking back at the Women's Tax Resistance League and at the Poll Tax riots thirty years ago. A recap of the last international war tax resistance conference. Another American taxpayer reaches the limit and moves on to resistance. And attacks on traffic ticket radar cameras continue in Europe.
Everything is a little different this mid-April, but there's still some tax resistance news of note, from the U.S., Catalonia, Austria, Mexico, and the U.K.
Tax resistance news from the United States, Italy, Argentina, Catalonia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, and Germany.
Extinction Rebellion plans to launch a tax strike in Britain (or maybe that's just a right-wing fantasy). Are the property tax strikes of the Great Depression due for a revival? The number of Americans renouncing their U.S. citizenship reached an all-time high in the first quarter of this year. And: attacks on traffic ticket robots continue in Europe.
A tax strike in support of #BlackLivesMatter. Ed Agro, co-founder of New England War Tax Resistance, has died. Boosting the Mennonite Church's war tax alternative fund. Tax resistance against the war on the home front. The human war on robot traffic fine blasters continues. And: a Quaker petition defying the militia exemption tax to the Confederate legislature in Virginia.
Without any legal authorization, the I.R.S. is threatening prisoners in order to claw back the stimulus checks they are entitled to by law. Also: a self-employed musician launches a tax strike in Israel, war tax resistance news from the United States, and reports from around the world on the human war against traffic ticket robots.
David & Jan Hartsough share their war tax resistance letter to the I.R.S., a taxpayer uses the law to fight back against the I.R.S.'s private debt collector deputies, neighbors of a Vancouver homeless encampment threaten tax resistance to pressure the government to help, a new NWTRCC newsletter is out, and the international human war on traffic ticket robots continues.
A Beirut business owner has decided to redirect his taxes from the corrupt and inept government to charitable organizations who are effectively responding to the port explosion disaster. Also: local governments in Catalonia are refusing to remit taxes to the Spanish federal government. Resistance to the U.K. television license fee. Payroll taxes deferred to the end of the year in the U.S. And more successful attacks against the traffic ticket robots.
An introductory war tax resistance workshop is coming up in about a month. Also: anti-abortion tax resister Michael Bowman back in court, a new history of the Agape Community is out, war tax resister Alan Barnett has died, tax resistance rumblings get louder in South Africa, and the human war on traffic ticket robots continues.
Even "socially responsible" investment funds that say they screen out investments in warfare often loan money to the Pentagon by investing in treasury bonds. What is a conscientious investor to do? Also: updates on tax resistance in Strathcona and South Kivu, a hazmat team called out to the I.R.S. office, and the human rebellion against traffic ticket robots continues.
Lindsey Britt on war tax resistance, charitable donations, relationships, and ethical decisionmaking. The U.S. federal budget is a mess and getting worse (or better, if you're eager to see it go bankrupt). The human battle against traffic ticket robots continues in Europe. And more tax resistance news from Galmudug, Veneto, and Catalonia.
A trove of artifacts from the poll tax rebellion in the U.K. have been scanned in and made available via The Sparrows's Nest Library and Archive. Also: a property tax strike is brewing in Boston, more traffic ticket robots disabled in France, and Donald Trump contributes to the collapse of taxpayer compliance in the United States.
The I.R.S.'s extra-legal attempt to withhold stimulus payments from prisoners gets slapped down by a federal judge. There's a new NWTRCC newsletter out. The human war on traffic ticket robots continues. And more recent tax resistance links of note.
My limerick commentary on current events. Profiles of war tax resisters Don Timmerman, John Woolman, and Ammon Hennacy. Creative ways to exploit I.R.S. paperwork chaos. Traffic ticket robots under attack in Europe. How tax evasion may suddenly balloon. How the "All or Nothing Syndrome" discourages war tax resistance. Americans renounce their citizenship in record numbers. And peace activists who attacked U.S. military planes in Ireland are found not guilty by a sympathetic jury.
Rob Greenfield announces he's through paying federal taxes. Also: fifty thousand businesses in Tuscany launch a coordinated tax strike. And: the human war on traffic ticket robots continues. Also: prohibitive American cigarette taxes inexorably lead to a boom in smuggling.
There's a new NWTRCC newsletter out with updates for American war tax resisters. Also: another tax strike is brewing in South Kivu. And: the human war on traffic ticket robots continues around the world.
The human rebellion against the traffic ticket robots continues to rage. Here is a collection of recent reports from Italy, France, England, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Guadeloupe. Also: reading the tea leaves and trying to divine whether or not an I.R.S. budget increase is in our future.
An upcoming Mennonite webinar will cover war tax resistance. War tax resisters in Spain issue an annual movement census. Peter J. Reilly shakes his head and concludes that not paying your taxes is a workable strategy. More attacks on speed cameras in France. And more hints the Democrats are planning to boost the I.R.S.
An Extiction Rebellion tax resister speaks out on The Earth Tax Strike group's plans. The South Kivu tax strike heats up. Ruth Benn on John-Ed Croft, and Bob Bady on Juanita & Wally Nelson. And the human battle against the traffic ticket robots continues.
The I.R.S. sends me another eight letters (yawn). Also: boycotts target the military coup in Myanmar. And the human battle against the traffic ticket robots continues.
Tax resistance against the military coup in Myanmar heats up. #MoneyRebellion's Earth Tax Strike prepares to launch. Don't be intimidated into silence by frivolous filing penalties. The human war on traffic ticket robots continues. The I.R.S. says it will give you your stimulus money even if you owe taxes, and you now have until May 17 to file your return.
War tax resister Lindsey Britt on how our taxes form our legacy. America's wealthy are tax dodging with impunity. A regional Catalan government stops paying taxes to Spain, while Spanish war tax resisters ramp up for tax season. Traffic ticket robots succumb to attacks around the globe. A look back at the anti-poll-tax movement. Upcoming Tax Day actions. And a new tax strike in the D.R. Congo.
Long-time war tax resisters Arcadi Oliveres and David Zarembka have died. More Catalan municipalities begin withholding their taxes from Spain. A new NWTRCC newsletter, press release, and upcoming national gathering. A tax strike in North Kivu is boosted by a hartal and sit-ins. A new War Resisters League federal spending pie chart is out. Constitutional challenges to revocations of passports from tax scofflaws look unlikely to succeed, says tax prof. Biden plans to boost the I.R.S. enforcement budget. And: more traffic ticket camera destruction in Europe.
The Biden administration plans to beef up the I.R.S. enforcement budget, as the agency struggles to keep up with paperwork and new responsibilities. The I.R.S. commissioner doubles his estimate of the "tax gap" to $1 trillion of evaded taxes per year. War tax resisters in the U.S. and Spain prepare for tax season. Peter Bagge illustrates Henry David Thoreau. And more traffic ticket robots fall to rebel sabotage.
A climate emergency tax strike begins in the U.K., and a seminar about the history of tax objection there. The Biden administration wants banks to report details about everyone's bank accounts to the I.R.S. A separatist group in Catalonia launches a tax resistance campaign. An upcoming seminar about the legal prospects for conscientious objection to military taxation in the U.S.A. And some other tax resistance activity around the globe.
War tax resisters celebrate International Conscientious Objection Day. Anti-coup tax strikers in Myanmar are also refusing to pay government monopoly electricity bills. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to double the I.R.S. budget. And more tax resistance news from around the world.
Extinction Rebellion U.K. puts out a video to announce the launch of its Earth Tax Strike. Also: Peter Goldberger on the legal prospects for conscientious objection to military taxation in the U.S., an interesting hack of California's tax system, a history of how the I.R.S. got into its current sorry state, prospects for the Biden Administration's plans to turn that around, a letter from a Basque war tax resister, and more tales from the human war on traffic ticket robots.
Newly-released statistics from the I.R.S. confirm that the number tax enforcement liens, levies, and seizures plummeted last year to twenty-year lows. Also: hotels in Argentina launch a tax strike, connecting the dots between war tax resisters and the Pentagon Papers whistleblower, unintuitive tax resistance in Ivory Coast, another war tax resistance season peaks in Spain, and the human war on traffic ticket robots continues.
An estimated 61% of U.S. households paid no federal income tax last year. The I.R.S. says it will avoid seizing money from bank accounts that received Advanced Child Tax Credit deposits. A "Council Tax Strike" hits the U.K. The human war on traffic-ticket-issuing robot cameras continues. And: looks back at the tax resistance of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen and of Henry David Thoreau.
The Biden administration would like the I.R.S. to have more visibility into your bank accounts, but the legislative proposal to force banks to report this information may not survive the reconciliation process. Also: a recap of the activism of war tax resisters Eroseana Robinson and Juanita & Wally Nelson. And: the human war on traffic ticket robots continues.
The I.R.S. pulls a fast one to evade the statute of limitations. International tax resisters to speak at upcoming NWTRCC conference. New regional war tax resistance group starts in New England. Recap of Women's Tax Resistance League published. London environmentalists launch tax strike against new incinerator. Biafra Nations League issues tax strike ultimatum. Conscientious objectors to abortion introduce peace-tax-fund-like legislation in Argentina. And more of the latest tax resistance news.
Plans to let the I.R.S. snoop on your bank accounts get more modest. A new guide to healthy eating on a frugal budget. Federal tax revenues are way up this year, thanks to booming fortunes of corporations and the wealthy. And the global human ragtag guerrilla defense against the traffic ticket robot hordes continues.
Congressional Democrats were unable to coalesce around a plan to let the I.R.S. snoop on your bank accounts, so that looks to be off the table for now. But the I.R.S. budget is getting a boost that will erase the cuts from the past decade. Meanwhile the global human ragtag guerrilla defense against traffic ticket robots continues, as shown in this dramatic video.
European tax resisters speak at NWTRCC's national gathering. Myanmar democracy advocates call on international companies to hold taxes back from the military junta. More tax enforcement money in the proposed infrastructure bill in the U.S. And: the global human ragtag guerrilla defense against traffic ticket robots continues.
NWTRCC launches a "Refuse to Pay for War Sign-On Statement." The Mennonite Church U.S.A. calls for war tax resistance in its Statement on the value and morality of the 2022 U.S. defense budget. The number of Americans who formally renounce their citizenship hit new highs last year. José Luis Espert, a member of parliament, called for mass tax resistance in Argentina. And: The ragtag human guerrilla war against the robot traffic ticket camera hordes continues.
War tax resister Randy Kehler profiled. An interview with war tax resister Kathy Kelly and an article about war tax resistance by Lincoln Rice and Glen Milner. Richard M. Schickel, a former I.R.S. Revenue Officer, has put out a new book about why the I.R.S. doesn't work anymore. The I.R.S. customer service phone line is so bad, a business is making a profit by sitting on hold for you. And: Santa Claus converts a traffic ticket camera into a pose-with-santa photo booth.
A North London Incinerator Council Tax Strike Handbook published. The anticipated I.R.S. funding boost runs into snags in Congress. Highlights from the Taxpayer Advocate's annual report. New levies, liens, and seizures annual totals released. And: the human war against the robot traffic ticket camera hordes continues.
How you can resist funding the government → a survey of tactics of historical tax resistance campaigns → join cooperative housing and business arrangements → The Agape Community → Brayton & Suzanne Belote Shanley
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The Agape Community, a group of radically nonviolent, tax resisting Catholics in Massachusetts that was founded in 1982. Also: Eric Volpe explains why he became a war tax resister. And: will tax resisters get hassled when they try to cross the border?.
The documentary film "Path of Greatest Resistance" about war tax resisters in Western Massachusetts in the early 1990s, is now on-line. Also: war tax resisters Larry Dansinger and Bill Ramsey meet the press on Tax Day.
Tax resisters sometimes form cooperative housing or business relationships that help facilitate their resistance. Today I'll summarize some examples of this that I have encountered in my research.
The new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is out, including a debate on whether or not to pay the "social security tax." Also: 1984 brought the Friends Journal's second special issue on war taxes, at a time when even its critics acknowledged war tax resistance as a mainstream practice in the Society of Friends.
War tax resisters reflect on the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japanese cities. Also: what if conscientious objectors' taxes could play for something good, like the U.S. Institute of Peace? And: a 1966 declaration supporting war tax resistance from the New York Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends.
How you can resist funding the government → other tax resistance strategies → Constitutionalist tax protest stuff ("show me the law!")
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Libertarians, environmentalists, let's all join hands and sing a round of "I ain't gonna pay for war no more." (Some good articles about war tax resistance in the environmentalist and libertarian press this week)
In 1948, Vivien Kellems announced that she would no longer withhold income tax from her employees' paychecks. Here's the transcript of the speech with which she helped to launch the American Constitutionalist tax protester movement.
Is advocating war tax resistance the same as "promoting tax evasion schemes" and if so, could the government shut down organizations that promote war tax resistance and seize their membership rolls? What about tax resisters' "alternative funds"? Are they a variety of "warehouse bank" vulnerable to wholesale seizure by the government?
In 1956 the governor of Utah, J. Bracken Lee, became a federal income tax resister. Here's his story.
The recession means fewer taxes to collect and more people moving into the underground economy. Also: a history of tax rebellion. And: what's wrong with constitutionalist tax protesters. Also: Geov Parrish updates his anti-tax boilerplate, and gets a tongue-in-cheek counterpoint for his troubles. And: someone blows Lenin's ass to bits with a bomb, and a bunch of someones destroy £250,000 worth of equipment at an armaments factory in England.
Some notes and photos from the first full day of the NWTRCC National Gathering in Cleveland, Ohio. Also: Aristotle continues to try to understand self-control and its absence, and contrasts his view with that of Socrates. Does this have anything to do with hypocrisy?
Ghis (Ghislaine Lanctôt) writes of her time behind bars for tax resistance in Canada in her new book "Escape in Prison."
More "Tax Day" recaps. Also: war tax resister Allen Cooper gets fired by his jingoistic cocaine snorting boss. And: a flashback to Utah Governor J. Bracken Lee's quixotic tax protest in 1956.
I'm not the only one on a Tolstoy binge as we approach the centennial of his death: HistoryToday looks at the various "Tolstoyan" groups that tried to put his ideals into practice. Also: a brief mention of a successful "Axe the Tax" resistance campaign by businesses in Coventry, and a note on early constitutionalist tax protester A.J. Porth.
Ten years ago today, the New York Times looked at some of the more prominent "show me the law" Constitutionalist tax protesters, and complained that they seemed to be getting away with it. Where are they now? Also: Marie Lawson on tax resistance for women's suffrage during World War I.
Lynn Johnston started as a Vietnam War phone tax refuser, but ended up adopting a more radical libertarian critique of taxes in general. Also: In 1981, 3,500 General Motors employees caught the "show me the law" bug and stopped paying their federal income tax. And: in 1756, a correspondent for a London paper complains that the pacifist war tax resistance of Pennsylvania Quakers is leaving their people wide open to attack from their enemies.
A Vietnam War-era tax strike gets the notice of the nation's press. Also: a 1980 mention of war tax resisters Paul Monsky and Bruce Chrisman.
Two skeptical looks at the Constitutionalist tax protest scene from the libertarian press in 1979 and 1981, and some research to bring it up to date.
An update on Vickie Aldrich's "frivolous filing" case. Also: council tax rebels in Britain, including a group that stormed a tax bankruptcy trial and tried to arrest the judge. And: the I.R.S. facilitates the tax fraud industry by promiscuously distributing taxpayer ID numbers. Also: another "I.R.S. building evacuated due to suspicious package" story.
On the 100th anniversary of the imprisonment of Mark Wilks for failure to pay his wife's income taxes, let's look at how close attention to legal technicalities can help tax resisters find and exploit flaws that hold the tax system or its enforcement arm up to ridicule, make them unworkable, or make them vehicles for additional resistance or propaganda opportunities.
Tax resistance campaigns have found it useful to identify resonances with popular myths, esteemed tax rebellions of yore, and semi-fictional heroes. Here are some examples.
When you're trying to expand the ranks of tax resisters in your campaign, you need good educational tools. If you can be clear, thorough, and credible in demonstrating how to resist and what the consequences are likely to be, you can eliminate the biggest obstacle to the growth of your campaign. Today I'll give a few examples of how tax resistance campaigns have dispelled ignorance about tax resistance.
A 1976 article by Libertarian Party founder and tax resister Karl J. Bray gives some insight into the early days of that party and of the Constitutionalist tax protester movement… and introduces me to Danish tax resister Mogens Gilstrup.
Is war tax resistance elitist? Got any protest plans for Tax Day? Congress denounces black I.R.S. kettle. Colombia court protects conscientious objectors. New Mexico sheriff stands down I.R.S. and federal marshals attempting property seizure. Al Sharpton tries for tax evader hall-of-fame. And: a record number of Americans renounced their citizenship last year.
Erica Weiland talks with Shane Claiborne. Irish water tax resistance. Distinguishing tax evaders, protesters, and resisters. And: eavesdropping on I.R.S. identity theft scammers as they plot techniques to evade agency countermeasures.
Remember Ghis (Ghislaine Lanctôt, but definitely not GHISLAINE LANCTÔT), that idiosyncratic, "personocratic" tax resister from Canada? Here's the rest of her story.
How you can resist funding the government → the tax resistance movement → publications → More Than a Paycheck (newsletter)
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War Resisters International chair Joanne Sheehan gave the keynote speech at the New England War Tax Resistance Conference last month on Gandhi's Three Elements of Nonviolent Social Transformation
More news from the NWTRCC strategy conference, and a Peace Tax Form for the I.R.S. Also: some papers on the ethics of tax evasion from Robert McGee. And: there are some new tax credits for people who install certain types of energy-efficient and solar equipment at home or buy certain types of fuel-efficient vehicles next year.
A new issue of More Than a Paycheck is out, and war tax resister Bryan Nelson gets some press for the cause. Also: increased I.R.S. enforcement effort only looks impressive on a short time scale.
Jerry DePyper is a rare example of a right-wing conscientious tax resister, on strike against a government that funds abortion and tolerates gay marriage. Also: a profile of Ithica War Tax Resisters, and a new edition of "More Than a Paycheck."
A new edition of More Than a Paycheck is out, with lots of info from the up-and-coming generation of tax resisters. Also: the I.R.S. announces a major overhaul in how they calculate how much they let you keep to live on while they're seizing your assets and your paycheck — it's good news for some of us, not-so-good for others.
A new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter features an article I wrote on how to craft a persuasive and motivating tax resistance message, updates on Daniel Jenkins's legal battles for conscientious objection to military taxation, notes from the New England war tax resistance gathering, and more. Also: the "economic stimulus" package — what will it mean for tax resisters like me?
The new NWTRCC newsletter is out. Also: In 1815, Ephraim Wood spied hypocrisy in Quaker war tax resistance, but, as with so many of the old criticisms and reductiones ad absurdum, this one seems to me to be making some good arguments in favor of tax resistance while trying to invent and discredit bad ones.
NWTRCC's newsletter is out with lots of news and views of interest to war tax resisters. Also: Indymedia NewsReal broadcasts the trailer to Steev Hise's "Death and Taxes." And: Mary King on nonviolent struggle for regime change.
Okay, so you believe me that the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act is a rotten idea. But do I have any better ideas? Yes indeed; here are three. Also: highlights from the new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter, including reviews of "We Won't Pay" and "American Quaker War Tax Resistance."
NWTRCC's December newsletter is out, with notes about frivolous filing penalties, the Eugene meeting, the Peace Tax Seven cases, and the experiences of long-time resister Becky Pierce, among other things. Also: what happened when Karl Meyer put the I.R.S. to the test by filing a tax return every day in 1984.
From the latest issue of NWTRCC's newsletter: updates on tax policy and the international conscientious objection movements, news and updates about war tax resisters and the war tax resistance movement, a story of how even a first-time token resister might come face to face with the capricious jaws of the I.R.S., and announcing a new speaker's bureau. That and a great review of "We Won't Pay!"
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter, More Than a Paycheck, is out. This issue includes a debate about whether or not NWTRCC should endorse the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund bill
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is out. Also: an update on the I.R.S.'s software modernization efforts — after years of missing deadlines and blowing budgets, it looks like they're throwing in the towel.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is out. Here's the scoop on what you'll find inside. Also: the virtue of amiability looks at first like a sort of kindergarten virtue, but finding the right balance is a hard skill for grown-ups too.
A new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter includes items on relationships where one person is a tax resister and the other one is not, news on a new war tax resistance film, upcoming and recent war tax resistance actions, and more. Also: Mexican vendors sell tax evasion paraphernalia, making the income tax there nearly a joke.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter, "More Than a Paycheck" with news about last month's Southeast War Tax Resistance gathering and the criminal case against war tax resister Frank Donnelly. Also: more tax resistance talk in Argentina, and Greek tax collectors go on strike.
A new issue of "More Than a Paycheck" with news and updates, a preview of Tax Day actions this year, Chris Moore-Backman on his legal case, and a profile of Liz Scranton (which reminds me of a produce-addled wild-eyed hairy mountain man). Also: tax resistance against inadequate police protection in London and for animal protection in Spain.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is out, with an update from Julia Butterfly Hill on her resistance, and reports from the Arizona national gathering and from this year's tax day actions, among other things. Also, a member of the Women's Tax Resistance League wrote a history of that movement shortly after it succeeded in winning the vote for women. Unfortunately the only copy I've been able to locate is one continent and one ocean away.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is on-line. Also: Bomb-throwing anarchists, mutinies, and revolutionary agitators on the march, in the wake of the Viborg Manifesto, which called on Russians to refuse to pay taxes to the Czar.
A new issue of "More Than a Paycheck," NWTRCC's newsletter, is on-line, including news about penny polls, "settle with the I.R.S. for pennies on the dollar" companies, "frivolous filing" overreach from the I.R.S., Karl Meyer on what makes war tax resisters more vulnerable to criminal prosecution, Ed Hedemann on the history of the U.S. government's use of property seizures and criminal cases as tools against war tax resisters in the post-World War II era, and more.
How to use the Freedom of Information Act to see what the I.R.S. has on you, the experience of war tax resisters in federal prison camps, more on Evan Reeves's protest, NWTRCC business here and there, war tax resister Patricia Tompkins, an update on Jorge Güemes, the government seems unable to stop rampant tax fraud conducted by people already behind bars, and more on the work of WikiLeaks and its allies.
A new issue of More Than a Paycheck, with news and updates about war tax resistance, laws relating to war tax resisters, the war tax resistance movement, and so forth.
A new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter comes on-line. Also: conscientious tax resistance is mulled over in the Italian press.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter: Tony Serra on shit he will not eat, frivolous filing notices get out of hand, various resisters and resistance activities, and a penalty-sharing protester solidarity group in Iowa.
The other night I was in the kitchen, alone in the house, when a large rat tripped the trap in the laundry room. The trap seized around the rat's neck without snapping it, and the rat thrashed around in agonized panic. So did I, in a manner of speaking. Also: a new issue of More Than a Paycheck is out.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter with news from the war tax resistance movement. Also, a call to war tax resistance from an anti-imperialist book from Britain a century ago wouldn't sound out of place in the American empire today.
The latest edition of "More Than a Paycheck," NWTRCC's newsletter, is on-line. Also, in a new blog, Vickie Aldrich talks about her war tax resistance and her father's experiences in a Civilian Public Service camp for drafted conscientious objectors during World War Two.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is out, with news about the national (and international) war tax resistance movement. Also: Daniel Ellsberg said he would not have released the Pentagon Papers if it hadn't been for the influence of war tax resister Randy Kehler. And: video of war tax resisters Jack Herbert and S. Brian Willson on the Veterans For Peace Forum.
The new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is out, full of news about the Chicago conference, tax day actions, legal updates, international tax resistance news, and more.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is on-line. Also: the Women's Tax Resistance League marches in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.
The 30th Anniversary special edition of NWTRCC's newsletter is now on-line. Also: Some more details about the tax resistance of conservative Utah governor J. Bracken Lee, and some examples of when Lee crossed paths with Christian anarchist tax resister Ammon Hennacy while Hennacy was running the Catholic Worker hospitality house in Salt Lake City.
There's a new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter out. Also: A contemporary news account of the tax resisting Associations that helped overthrow King Charles Ⅹ of France in 1829–30.
Cindy Sheehan forces the I.R.S. to blink. A look inside NWTRCC's latest newsletter. Yesterday's "Pull the Pork (from the Pentagon)" protests. War tax resisters Francesc García Barberà and Amy Wachspress. And the I.R.S. use of civilian informers.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter with information about regional, national, and international war tax resistance gatherings, and news and commentary about war tax resistance.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is out, with news about war tax resistance and the community of resisters in the United States.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is out. Also: an English-language documentary looks at the alternative economy projects surfacing in Spain today.
A new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter is out. Also: some more background on France's interesting "bonnets rouges" tax resisters.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is out, with lots of news about war tax resisters and a review of "99 Tactics of Successful Tax Resistance Campaigns".
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is out. Also: the War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund mutual aid program, now under new management, has issued a new appeal. And: you can now view a recording of last week's Google Hangout on war tax resistance.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter, including articles on tax day actions, the recent national gathering, legal updates, and a close look at the ramifications of the Affordable Care Act for war tax resisters. Also: Rebeccaites tear up a turnpike gate and throw it into the Tivy, on this date in 1843.
A new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter gives news, updates, and other useful information from the American war tax resistance movement.
NWTRCC's newsletter, a new War Tax Talk blog post, and a Ruth Benn radio appearance… the latest news from the American war tax resistance movement.
The latest news from the U.S. war tax resistance movement, including a new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter.
War tax resisters and conscientious objectors in the U.S. are featured in a new book. A Spanish group explains war tax resistance in comic book form. Peter Goldberger discerns hope for conscientious objectors to military taxation in the Supreme Court's "Hobby Lobby" ruling. NWTRCC comes out with guidance on health care and income security for war tax resisters. And there's a new NWTRCC newsletter out to boot.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter, with articles about the U.S. war tax resistance movement, tax resistance internationally, and the global anti-war and conscientious objection movements.
The provisions of the highway bill authorizing private debt collectors to go after tax debts and allowing the government to revoke or deny passports of people with tax debts are now the law of the land. Also: a new NWTRCC newsletter.
War tax resistance news from the new NWTRCC newsletter, and from war tax resisters in Spain, Canada, and the U.K.
War tax resistance news from the new NWTRCC newsletter. Also: tax resistance played a role in the Mahdist uprising in Egypt, as shown by the 1884 Daily News dispatch.
Read the third issue of the New Escapologist free on-line, including my article "Buying my life back through tax resistance." Also: a new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter hits the stands.
Gloria Steinem says if the government defunds Planned Parenthood, she'll divert her taxes to the group. Also: a new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter is out, with news from the American war tax resistance movement. And: a proposal for a toothless threat for Democrats to refuse to pay taxes if they get Trumped again.
How to topple a dictator with civil resistance. How to create a self-enforcing tax resistance escrow account with blockchain technology. And: a new edition of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee newsletter explores war tax resistance in the age of Trump.
As Tax Day approaches in the United States, war tax resistance activity increases. There are Tax Day protests being organized across the country, there's a NWTRCC national gathering coming up and a new issue of that organization's newsletter out. And: Sam Koplinka-Loehr addresses war tax resistance on the Act Out! program.
A new NWTRCC newsletter is out. Plus: Thoreau is trending. And: how you can help Greeks drink untaxed coffee, how Quakers organized a transatlantic boycott of slave-labor products, Gloria Steinem opens up about her renewed interest in tax resistance, and the I.R.S. gets audited.
A new issue of NWTRCC's newsletter is out, with reports back from the recent national gathering, and other news of interest to war tax resisters. Also: recent tax resistance news from Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A new NWTRCC newsletter is out, with news of a new war tax divestment campaign, a tribute to World War I bond slackers, information about the new tax legislation, a profile of Karl Meyer, and more. Also: CODEPINK is also launching a Divest from the War Machine campaign.
Who counts as a "citizen"? What responsibilities and privileges attach to "citizenship"? If you want to understand constitutions and states, says Aristotle, start there. Also: a new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter is out.
There's a new NWTRCC newsletter out, just in time for the tax filing season, with information about the implications of inheritances for war tax resisters, and a look at war tax redirection as a form of slavery reparations. In other news: the fallout from the government "shutdown" continues at the already-stricken I.R.S.
I.R.S. says it will delay levying bank accounts into which you deposit stimulus payments or PPP loans (long enough for you to zero them out!). Tax blogger Peter J. Reilly concludes that I.R.S. Collections is broken, and "flat out not paying" has become a workable strategy for taxpayers. There's a new NWTRCC newsletter out. Also: tax protests and strikes in Poland, Italy, South Kivu, and Serbia. And a Nicaraguan columnist wants big business to lead the next tax strike there.
37 businesses in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland signed a letter threatening to stop paying municipal taxes and fees until the city meets its demands. Also: The tax returns of America's richest people have been leaked, and sure enough they pay paltry income tax rates. And: a new NWTRCC newsletter is out.
Does the U.S. government respect their citizens' right to travel abroad? A record number of rich Americans renounced their citizenship last year. Catalan restaurateurs redirect their taxes for seven years and now are fighting a big fine. The I.R.S. continues to drown in a backlog of last year's tax forms, and Congress seems in no hurry to bail them out with more funding. And: a new NWTRCC newsletter is out.
Eleven council tax resisters fight the Edmonton Incinerator. The fate of I.R.S. provisions in the Build Back Better Act. War tax resisters in Spain redirect €25K in war taxes to good causes. Tax strike launched in Ituri. A new NWTRCC newsletter is out. And more tax resistance news.
How you can resist funding the government → about the IRS and U.S. tax law/policy → how the government deals with tax resisters → will tax resisters get hassled at the borders or when applying for passports?
Tax Day actions across the country; a new tax resistance campaign for D.C. statehood; attempting to make the coercion of taxation more explicit; the government considers refusing to issue passports to people unless they've paid all their taxes; the I.R.S. doesn't get that budget boost they'd been hoping for; war tax resister Don Schrader profiled; and eleven tax resistance tactics for the rich.
More and more Americans do not have to pay any federal income tax. You might think this would warm the cockles of the tiny hearts of the folks at the Heritage Foundation, but you'd be wrong. Also: Congress is thinking up some new ways to crack down on people behind on their taxes.
So Obamacare is constitutional, and the president recently signed a new transportation tax extender bill… what are the implications for tax resisters? Also: some new tax-resistance bloggery to appreciate.
Here's a peek at some of the tax reform proposals percolating through Congress. They're a long way from becoming law, but give us some idea of the new challenges we may be faced with before long.
Private debt collectors may go after federal tax debts again and people behind on their taxes may have their passports revoked — two surprises tucked into the new Highway Bill. Also: Erica Weiland on the latest NWTRCC national gathering, a profile of tax resisting superlawyer Tony Serra, and another look at the Hobby Lobby decision and conscientious objection to military taxation.
Remembering war tax resister Peg Morton. Also: a closer look at the Boston Tea Party, new restrictions on the freedom to travel, socially responsible companies and taxes, and I.R.S. follies of various sorts. And: an undertaker strike in Valladolid in response to a hearse tax.
International tax resistance news from Italy, Pakistan, Ghana, India, the U.K., Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela. Also: a closer look at the new policy of withholding passports from people with tax debts in the U.S., and other American tax news. And: a dispatch from a tax riot in Portugal in 1845.
I am freshly back from Mexico, where the craft beer renaissance has finally arrived. And despite my more than $50,000 of overdue federal taxes, I didn't get hassled at the border coming back in, for what that's worth. While I was away, NWTRCC held its Spring national gathering, and the I.R.S. sent me a letter.
More details about the new U.S. government policy of denying passports to (or rescinding them from) people who owe more than $50,000 in back taxes.
The I.R.S. is only now beginning to roll out its program of denying passports to people with large tax debts. Here are the details. Also, the agency's private debt collection program seems to be a big flop so far.
Taking passports from people with tax debts makes the U.S. a debtors' prison. Graham Smith introduces voluntaryists to war tax resisters. Connecticut businesses surround the statehouse in a tax protest. The tax gap is bigger than we thought (blame the ultrarich). And: an anti-tax hartal in Mogadishu.
A New Call to Peacemaking was an effort by concerned Brethren, Mennonites, and Quakers to revitalize the peace testimony that sets those denominations apart. It included a call to war tax resistance. Also: the State Department issued me a brand new passport in the face of a law passed in 2015 that says tax resisters like me should have our passports revoked.
Tax resistance news from Samoa, Greece, the United States, Brittany, Saudi Arabia, France, Italy, Zambia, India, Nicaragua, Uganda, and Valencia.
The latest tax evasion scoops, more about the continuing collapse of the U.S. government, I.R.S follies, and other miscellaneous news of interest to tax resisters.
Today the I.R.S. informed me that it had "certified" to the U.S. State Department that I have a "seriously delinquent federal tax debt." By law this means the State Department is not supposed to issue me a passport or renew an existing one, and it could even choose to revoke the one I hold.
I got a peculiar letter from the I.R.S. yesterday. It confirms that my unpaid taxes for tax year 2010 have passed their collection deadline and are permanently out of the agency's reach, and it also suggests they haven't gotten around to processing the returns I filed more than a year ago. In other news: Truthout interviewed war tax resister Howard Waitzkin.
Why it is your duty to stop supporting the government → how tax resistance fits the bill → isn't some government worth paying for? → can libertarians, peaceniks, anarchists, environmentalists, paleocons, and lefties get along?
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Barry Loberfeld challenges war tax resisters not to be such pro-government pushovers. Also: the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee puts out a list of April 15th "Tax Day" protest actions in the United States. And: the National Priorities Project puts out its annual analysis of where your tax dollar goes.
A call from someone on the anti-war left for the anti-war left to reach out to the anti-war right and to anti-war libertarians. That and a change of tactics might really make a difference. Also: meeting minutes from the NWTRCC Strategy Conference.
Vermont tax resisters Linda Leehman, Lori Barg, and Lea Wood get some good press. Also: an anti-tax pamphlet from the Movement of the Libertarian Left. And: the cost of the Dubya Squad's wars continues to rise.
I try to find the real America amongst the curmudgeonly lovable losers in Bill Kauffman's "Look Homeward, America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists"
Just how non-partisan are these "tea party" protests? Also: a review of the documentary "Garbage Warrior." And: a flashback to the imperial media belittling of Gandhi's civil disobedience campaigns.
A Tax Day round-up: penny polls and other war tax resistance actions, interviews and profiles of war tax resisters, reactions to the "Tea Party" phenomenon, gay and lesbian tax resistance, a conservative call for an anti-war/anti-tax convergence, a columnist notes how easy it is to get away with not filing your taxes, I.R.S. employees pissed off that their boss got away with the sort of tax evasion that would get them fired, contractors in the I.R.S. mail room caught stealing the government's stolen money, and Joe the Plumber's 1-900 fair tax trainwreck.
Want to save the environment? Fight militarism. Also: Operation Dep 9, the latest feint towards tax resistance from American fiscal conservatives. And: a theoretical model of tax resister insurance. Also: protecting trust funds from federal tax liens. And: barter networks, alternative currencies, and the counter-economy. Also: I.R.S. agents are slacking when it comes to tax enforcement. And: tax resisters in Nankang, China gather in the thousands, block highways, overturn police cars, and force the government to rescind its tax enforcement plan.
In a 1971 article for The Progressive, Milton Mayer asks anti-war liberals why they're still buying My Lai. Also: Aristotle discusses Art as a method for discerning a variety of truth via creation.
David R. Henderson reports on the recent left/right/libertarian anti-war confab. Also: a huge spike in expatriates renouncing their U.S. citizenship (it's because of taxes). And: about the Possibility Alliance community in Missouri.
Come Home, America: the new left/right/libertarian antimilitarist coalition has a homepage. Also: Vaclav Havel on coerced consent, the National Treasury Employees Union and the Internal Revenue Service quake in fear at the prospect of taxpayer retaliation, and more productive prisoner tax fraud: "I'm through with the street crime. I'm strictly white collar from now on. I love the I.R.S."
Reports and photos from the opening days of the Spring 2010 NWTRCC national gathering in Tucson, Arizona.
Tax resistance news from Germany, Venezuela, and Sicily. Also, a profile of J. Tony Serra, a free guide to nonviolent resistance, and an anarchist lemonade-in. And, 1911: a suffragist tax resister has her property taken by the government and auctioned off, and the auction turns into a suffrage rally.
American conservatives are losing patience with the Afghanistan war. Also: Susan B. Anthony endorses tax resistance in 1874. And: an article on the Chicago property tax strikes of the early 1930s.
A new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter is on-line. Also: bars in Lansing, Michigan fight back against a smoking ban with a tax resistance campaign; a profile of resister Martha Graber; and more "suspicious packages" force evacuations at I.R.S. processing centers.
There's a myth about how Leon Czolgosz became an anarchist that goes like this…
The October 2011 launch of an anti-war direct action campaign and the Come Home, America coalition are two promising signs the American peace movement is shaking off its slumber.
Sign up to attend the NWTRCC National Gathering in Kansas City this November. And: Americans living and working overseas are renouncing their citizenship to get out of the grips of the I.R.S. Also: Robert Burrowes on war tax resistance in Australia. And: Anarchists and war tax resistance. Also: how the rich use government to get richer at your expense. And: contemporary council tax rebels in England… mostly just because they don't think they're getting their money's worth.
A new, searchable database of global, historical examples of nonviolent action comes on-line. Also: a Ron Paul Republican decides to shrug. And: trying to put America's cancerous military spending on the agenda of the deficit committee… and the climate change activist movement.
Simone de Beauvoir on the unavoidable responsibility of existence, and Ross Kenyon on how this enters into the debate on the libertarian stance toward pollution and property rights and toward consumer activism and corporate social responsibility.
A paper on discouraging tax evasion may offer hints to those of us trying to promote it. Also: more hints of Northern League tax resistance. And: finally a conservative responds with tax resistance to the "I.R.S. Scandal". Also: war tax resisters in the recent climate march.
A new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter gives news, updates, and other useful information from the American war tax resistance movement. Also: Rebecca still seems undeterred.
Notes from war tax resisters Erica Weiland, Peg Morton, John Lindsay-Poland, Frances Crowe, Joseph Olejak, and Henry Braun. Also: some news briefs of interest to tax resisters.
Conservative intellectual Charles Murray suggests that Americans push the government back into its Constitutional cage by means of a series of mass civil disobedience campaigns.
Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → anti-abortion arguments for tax resistance → Michael E. Bowman
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American anti-abortion tax resister Michael Bowman indicted. South Africa's government takes notice of anti-corruption tax resistance. CodePink pushes a Rube Goldberg-style campaign to take money out of the war economy. And: a dispatch from a tax rebellion in Burma in 1930.
American anti-abortion tax resister Michael Bowman recently triumphed in court, with a judge ruling that his efforts to avoid I.R.S. collection were not illegal. Also: Peter Reilly gives his take on war tax resisters, and a look back at Tax Day actions from years gone by.
Tax resistance in the "Peace Churches" → Mennonites / Amish
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Mennonites, atom bombs, Borgen values, unconventional thinking, and gasoline taxes (oh my!)
How did the Amish manage to get themselves exempted from the U.S. Social Security system? Also: Crispin Sartwell gives a conference of young Democrats a good talking to, and that's not all he's got to say.
War tax resistance among American Mennonites during the Revolutionary War. Also: tax resistance during the British women's suffrage movement, and a political cartoon from the Spanish-American War shows what happens when a jingo meets the "war tacks". It must be history day at The Picket Line.
A new edition of NWTRCC's newsletter is out. Also: Chris Hedges expands on last month's tax resistance pledge.
Fifty years ago today, Time magazine published an article about Amish resistance to the social security tax in the United States — a civil disobedience campaign that eventually succeeded in forcing concessions from the government.
Mennonite war tax resisters today, a "Tax Tea Party Revolt" for legal same-sex marriage recognition in April, and weighing the pros-and-cons of simultaneous war tax resistance against federal and state taxes.
I report back from the Spring NWTRCC national gathering in Virginia.
A new video about government spending priorities and war tax resistance, put out by the Mennonite Central Committee. Also: seven million American children went missing in 1986, thanks to a change in the tax laws. And: Nepalese doctors stage a tax strike.
If your progressive friends aren't war tax resisters yet, this Daily Kos post and Chris Hedges column might push them over the edge. Also: the Mennonite Central Committee sets up a fund for people who want to redirect their tax dollars toward undoing some of the harm in Afghanistan. And: another flashback to the beginnings of the modern American war tax resistance movement.
The new health-care industry law includes concessions to the conscientious objection of the Amish and of people who oppose abortion. Meanwhile conscientious objectors to military taxation still don't get no respect.
The latest issue of New Escapologist carries an article I wrote to introduce the practical technique of tax resistance. Also: John K. Stoner tries to get American Mennonites excited about a new war tax resistance protest campaign. And: would you be surprised to learn the I.R.S. issues more press releases about tax-related prosecutions in the weeks leading up to April 15?
A 1964 article about the Amish resistance to the Social Security taxes in the United States, and a couple other data points about the campaign. They were eventually successful in gaining a partial exemption from those taxes for the Amish, but it took over a decade.
During World War I in the U.S., an ostensibly voluntary war funding drive in which people were encouraged to buy "Liberty Bonds" was made effectively mandatory by a vigilante enforcement system that was even more ruthless than the government's.
An Amish bishop explains his church's position on refusing to buy war bonds. Also: Elizabeth Knight and Emma Sproson call the tax authorities' bluff.
In 1978, American Quakers, Brethren, and Mennonites got together in a "New Call to Peacemaking" — a campaign that continues today under the banner of "Every Church a Peace Church."
In 1978, American Quakers, Brethren, and Mennonites got together in a "New Call to Peacemaking" and vowed to support and encourage war tax resistance. Here's a report on the results of that meeting.
As the arms race ramped up in the early 1980s, a group of religious leaders including Quakers, Brethren, Mennonites, and a Catholic archbishop, called on Christians to refuse to pay taxes.
The Mennonite publication "PeaceSigns" focuses on war tax resistance. Also: the text of war tax resister Clare Hanrahan's tax day speech that cast out the MoveOn liberal vampires.
My Shareable article about my tax resistance is topic #1 on the Porc Therapy podcast. Mayors in Italy's Northern League launch a tax strike. A Mennonite responds to the Lettermanesque 10 reasons Mennonites don't resist taxes any more. A government-funded video game based on Thoreau's "Walden" pegs the irony meters in the red. And: a photo of Ken Knudson burning his tax payment check in 1966.
The U.S. financed its World War Ⅰ effort with ostensibly voluntary "Liberty Bond" sales. But war-fevered vigilante mobs made it dangerous not to contribute. Here is one eye witness account of a mob attack.
Income tax withholding or "pay as you earn" makes it difficult for people to resist paying income tax. Resisters need their employers to be willing to go out on a limb and resist alongside them. Here are some examples of employers who have done just that.
In addition to refusing to withhold taxes from the salaries of tax resisting employees, employers can also express their solidarity for such resisters by refusing to comply with salary levies. Here are some examples.
When tax resisters give away their resisted taxes to charitable causes, this defuses critics who claim they are selfish tax evaders, and also forms links between tax resisters and other activist groups.
When trying to bring new tax resisters into a movement, sometimes there is no substitute for addressing potential resisters individually: whether that be through letters, petitions, face-to-face meetings, or cleverly creative modes of engagement.
If more people evade more taxes, even if they do so for non-idealistic reasons, this both takes resources away from the government and increases the number of targets the tax enforcers have to pursue, thereby taking some pressure off of the resisters. Here's how to make that happen.
Tracking down information about Sander Katz, Edith Aldis, and Gerhard Friesen, American war tax resisters of the 1940s and 1950s. Also: Cornelia Lehn's successful quest to get her employer, the General Conference Mennonite Church, to support her war tax resistance.
What's happening on Tax Day 2013. Mennonites contemplate war tax resistance. Data on the underground economy. French heterosexual supremacists contemplate tax resistance. Even if they're caught, American tax fraudsters are incredibly unlikely to ever cough up their ill gotten gains. And: fifty years ago today, Barbara Deming lays out the case for war tax resistance.
War tax resistance remained very much on the agenda at the Friends Journal at the beginning of the Reagan era of aggressive military build-up in 1981.
Is the dilemma facing pacifist Quakers who are asked to pay a war tax best resolved by conscientious objection and civil disobedience, or by lawsuits and lobbying? Both approaches could be found in the pages of the Friends Journal in 1982.
The third of Friends Journal's special issues on war tax resistance came in 1988, and the topic came up in several other issues besides.
The I.R.S. sends me five very bland letters. Also: American "peace church" representatives confer about how to revitalize war tax resistance in their congregations.
Mennonite war tax resistance in 1969 and today, a conspiratorial look at the Republican plot to destroy the tax system, another highway tax portal in Brittany destroyed by fire, and a peek at tax resistance used in the Cypriot struggles of the 1950s.
News about American war tax resisters Jason Rawn, Juanita Nelson, and Elizabeth Boardman. Also: the U.S. Mennonite Central Committee organizes a tax redirection campaign to support Israeli conscientious objectors.
News about American war tax resisters, troubles in the U.S. tax bureaucracy, and tax resistance campaigns in Spain, Israel, England, Hong Kong, and India.
Announcing the next NWTRCC national gathering, news from a war tax resistance teach-in in San Diego, a look back at the pioneers of the modern American war tax resistance movement and how war tax resistance featured in the anti-Vietnam War movement, and more news and links of interest to war tax resisters.
Ronald Freund's book "What One Person Can Do To Help Prevent Nuclear War" gives us an assessment of individual and institutional Christian support for war tax resistance as it stood about 35 years ago.
Issues of "The Mennonite" from 1886 to just before World War Ⅰ show little concern for the conflict between paying taxes for war and traditional Mennonite conscientious objection to military service. It would take some time for Mennonite war tax resistance to reemerge.
Issues of "The Mennonite" during World War Ⅰ do not show any groundswell of interest in war tax resistance. Indeed the paper is downright enthusiastic about buying war bonds and stamps. This, though I know that there were Mennonites in the U.S who suffered for their refusal to buy such things.
Scruples about buying war bonds and stamps were still a minority position among those represented in the pages of "The Mennonite" between the World Wars.
As World War Ⅱ heated up, American Mennonites anticipated they would be called on to contribute to the fighting, and tried to decide how they would respond. One suggested that Mennonites quickly invest their assets in charitable endeavors before the government could requisition them for its martial purposes.
When the United States entered World War Ⅱ, American Mennonites feared a repeat of the World War Ⅰ experience, when many were persecuted for refusing to purchase war bonds. So they asked the government to sell them bonds that didn't say "war" on them anywhere, so they could buy too.
During World War Ⅱ the U.S. and Canadian governments sold "war bonds" and "victory loan bonds" to the public, and there was high pressure to buy. Mennonites convinced the government to sell them special bonds that, while the money went to the same place, made them feel like they weren't paying for war. How did that sleight-of-hand work?
As World War Ⅱ comes to a close, American Mennonites find that they have all but conceded to voluntarily funding the military in spite of their "nonresistant" creed. "[W]hat justification remains for us to continue as a separate denomination?" asked one.
In the post-war period, a non-sectarian war tax resistance movement emerged in the United States, and perhaps not coincidentally some Mennonites began to wake up to the implications of their "nonresistant" philosophy when it came to taxes.
Timidly but with plaintive curiosity, "The Mennonite" began to explore war tax resistance in the late 1940s and early 1950s while non-Mennonites were largely at the forefront of the emerging modern war tax resistance movement.
As the 1950s end, "The Mennonite" was almost as likely to counsel tax obedience as tax resistance, but a stirring of resistance was beginning that would break out into a storm in the decades ahead.
As the 1960s begin, the pages of "The Mennonite" show plenty of evidence that Mennonites were asking whether it was right for them to pay taxes for war, but not a lot of evidence that Mennonites were refusing to pay.
In the early 1960s, war tax resisters and the WTR-curious became more bold in the pages of "The Mennonite," but the General Conference Mennonite Church itself had a hard time coming to a consensus on how to handle the matter.
In 1963, Leo Driedger and John Howard Yoder tell readers of "The Mennonite" that it is time to take arguments about the propriety of paying war taxes seriously, and to decide how to respond.
In 1964, just as Mennonites seemed that they were poised to start resisting war taxes, a bunch of Brethren swept in with a tax resistance manifesto that leapfrogged 'em.
In the mid-1960s, some Mennonites began to explicitly promote war tax resistance, and a backlash also began. Also, the war in Vietnam for the first time became a focus of war tax discussion.
Mennonites opposed to war tax resistance, particularly in the Eastern District, began to throw their weight around in the late 1960s in the hopes of suppressing what was about to become a serious bone of contention in Mennonite circles.
The Western District Conference led the way in the Mennonite General Conference, passing a war tax resistance resolution in 1970 — possibly the first time an established Mennonite body had taken a public position on the issue.
In 1971 war tax resistance came out in the open, with the General Conference Mennonite Church overwhelmingly adopting a resolution saying "We stand by those who feel called to resist the payment of that portion of taxes being used for military purposes."
Things were really heating up by 1972, and regular coverage of war tax resistance and of Mennonite war tax resisters in "The Mennonite" reflected this. But the majority of Mennonites were not yet on board.
In 1973 the American war on Vietnam was winding down just when war tax resistance among Mennonites was heating up. Also: Lyle and Sue Snider cleared of tax evasion and contempt of court charges related to their war tax resistance.
1974 brought "The Mennonite" readers the news that The World Peace Tax Fund Act had been introduced in the U.S. Congress. It was like the "Civilian Bonds" of World War Ⅱ all over again. Would Mennonites conclude that they were off the hook and could wait for the politicians to do something about their complicity with war?
One of the most thoughtful critiques yet written against war tax resistance was part of the back-and-forth on the issue in the 1975 issues of "The Mennonite".
In 1976 the General Conference Mennonite Church began to wonder whether they could still call themselves a "peace church" while paying war taxes to the government for their objecting employees.
Should the General Conference Mennonite Church stop paying war taxes on behalf of its objecting employees? In 1977 nobody seemed to want to decide, but nobody could make the question go away, so a long discussion and debate began.
Between the "New Call to Peacemaking" initiative and the ongoing study and debate in Mennonite congregations, 1978 was a big year for war tax resistance in "The Mennonite".
In 1979 an unusual session of the Mennonite General Conference was called, just to discuss war tax resistance, and in particular, to decide whether the Conference would support its tax-resisting employees by refusing to withhold taxes from their paychecks.
In 1980 the General Conference Mennonite Church voted to initiate a legal suit in an attempt to free it from having to withhold war taxes from its conscientiously objecting employees.
Debate about whether, and how, to resist war taxes continued in the pages of "The Mennonite" in 1981, a proposal to create a "sabbatical service" program for war tax resisters was floated, and the General Conference Mennonite Church prepared a lawsuit against the I.R.S.
Before it was even really out of the gate, the General Conference Mennonite Church's suit against the I.R.S., which was intended to free it from having to withhold war taxes from its employees, was crushed.
In 1983 the General Conference Mennonite Church regrouped. Having failed via lawsuit and lobbying to get permission to stop withholding taxes from the paychecks of their war tax resisting employees, they decided to go the civil disobedience route.
Mentions of war tax resistance became more ecumenical and international in "The Mennonite" in 1984, as the I.R.S. began to crack down on some war tax resisters with its new "frivolous filing" penalty.
The General Board of the Mennonite Church joined the General Conference Mennonite Church's General Board (I know. I know. This is totally confusing.) in pursuing the option to stop withholding taxes from their war tax resisting employees' salaries in 1985. On the other hand, the Mennonite Central Committee decided it wouldn't do any such thing.
Enthusiasm for war tax resistance seemed to be waning in "The Mennonite" by 1987, just as the first international gathering on war tax resistance and peace tax campaigns had taken place. The increased enthusiasm for Peace Tax Fund legislation may have been partially to blame.
In 1988, Mennonite, Quaker, and Brethren leaders conferred on how to support war tax resisters in their churches, and out of this came "A Manual on Military Tax Withholding for Religious Employers."
Collective war tax redirection, through alternative funds, became a hot topic of interest in "The Mennonite" in 1989, as two large conferences of Mennonite congregations merged and voted to maintain their policy of not withholding federal taxes from the salaries of war tax resisting employees.
Imagine what might happen if every single Mennonite refused to pay taxes for war. Titus Peachey imagined it, and shared his imaginings with readers of "The Mennonite" in 1991.
A "Taxes for Life" initiative was briefly a craze among "The Mennonite" set in 1992. Meanwhile other Mennonites continued to puzzle over what it means to Render Unto Caesar in a nuclear age.
By 1994, war tax resistance writing in "The Mennonite" was so rare that most of it fit in a single Tax Day issue in which the resisters Ed Olfert, Menno Klassen, Jane Pritchard, Don Kaufman, and Earl & Pat Hostetter Martin were profiled.
In the late 1990s, while some individual Mennonites were still enthusiastically resisting war taxes, Mennonite institutions were less interested in confronting the issue directly, and tended to only obliquely refer to the dilemma of paying taxes for war. Even institutions that officially supported tax resisting employees often indicated that no employees were asking for such support.
Issues of "The Mennonite" from 1999 show Mennonites still struggling to find the right method of confronting the problem of taxpayer complicity: some tried lobbying for Peace Tax Fund legislation schemes, others tried to get below the tax line by making large charitable deductions, and one family "taxpatriated" to another country.
At the turn of the millennium, war tax resisters in "The Mennonite" seemed to be on the defensive, trying to fortify the practice against the Frequently Asked Questions of the reluctant.
In 2002 "The Mennonite" finally got around to reporting on the Mennonite martyrs who paid the price for refusing to buy war bonds during World War Ⅰ.
As the U.S. war on Iraq heated up, ironically talk of war tax resistance in the pages of "The Mennonite" continued to dwindle.
As the first decade of the new millennium came to a close, some Mennonites wondered whether the Mennonite Church had come to be "at peace with war." Certainly they seemed to largely be at peace with war taxes, with some notable exceptions.
"How are we doing as a peace church?" the Mennonite World Conference asked in 2012. "Our tax monies are conscripted, and each year our church members pay for cruise missiles, smart bombs, and unmanned drones — with barely the slightest tinge of conscience, let alone a whimper of protest," was the reply.
"The Mennonite" is now on-line, but a search through its recent archives discloses little about war tax resistance. Also: I discover where the missing volumes of "The Mennonite" from 1934, 1935, and 1953 were hiding.
I sum up what we've uncovered from looking through 133 years of "The Mennonite" to search for mentions of war tax (and war bond) resistance and compliance. War tax resistance began to appear in the 1950s, built to a furious climax in the mid-1980s, and then fell away rapidly thereafter. How might this be explained? Was it just a fad?
Archives of "Gospel Herald," the journal of the Mennonite Church, stretch back all the way to the U.S. Civil War (when its ancestor publication "The Herald of Truth" was active). This allows us to compare Mennonite and Quaker attitudes about paying commutation fines or paying for substitutes.
After the U.S. Civil War, Mennonites continued to make more explicit and precise the contours of their "nonresistant" conscientious objection policy in the pages of "The Herald of Truth." But war tax resistance was still off the table.
As a new century began, "The Herald of Truth" merged with "The Gospel Witness" to form "Gospel Herald". Mennonites debated whether they ought to vote, or become entangled in politics and government in any way, but by and large they taught that paying taxes was mandatory for good Christians.
During World War Ⅰ, "Gospel Herald" archives show that the Mennonite Church was much more opposed to supporting the war effort through purchases of "Liberty Bonds" than their cousins in the General Conference Mennonite Church had been.
Between the world wars, "Gospel Herald" writers continued to defend the orthodox opinion that Mennonite conscientious objection stopped at the door of the tax office. Good Christians pay their taxes, even taxes that mostly pay for bloodshed, and that's that.
In World War Ⅱ Mennonites tried to find a way to chip in by buying government bonds without buying "war bonds." The "Gospel Herald" has a fairly thorough record of this effort. The "Civilian Bonds" that resulted were a sort of ridiculous fig leaf, but only a few Mennonites seemed to notice this, including John M. Synder who said Mennonites had fallen for a "specious line of wishful reasoning."
In the early Cold War period, the orthodox Mennonite opinion about the scriptural obligation of submission to government, and taxpaying in particular, began to erode. And Mennonites learned, in the pages of "Gospel Herald," about Christians from other sects who were practicing conscientious war tax resistance. Also: the imposition of the federal Social Security program led to tax resistance from the Amish.
In 1959 something snapped, and writers in the "Gospel Herald" began writing about war tax resistance as a possible Mennonite response, and considering the most proper ways to go about it.
1963 began with a bombshell, as John Howard Yoder's essay "Why I Don't Pay My Taxes" appeared in the "Gospel Herald." This prompted an avalanche of debate about war tax resistance through the first half of the year.
In the mid-1960s, the "Gospel Herald" seemed to retreat from discussion of war tax resistance for a while, until editor John M. Drescher reopened the debate with his 1967 editorial "Dare We Pay Taxes for War?"
By 1968, Mennonites felt left behind as the civil rights and anti-war movements erupted around them. How could the Christian vision of nonviolence and universal brotherhood move to the front of this parade? This made activist positions like war tax resistance seem more essential.
In 1970, Donald Kaufman's book "What Belongs to Caesar?" came out, finding war tax resistance's place in the Mennonite and larger Christian traditions, and increasing its scriptural respectability. "Gospel Herald" writers reacted to this development.
1971 began with a backlash against war tax resistance in the pages of "Gospel Herald," and it took a while for war tax resisters to find their voices again.
Coverage of war tax resistance really picked up steam in the pages of "Gospel Herald" in 1972, as the Mennonite Church became more enthusiastic about the idea. Also: peace tax fund legislation gets off the ground.
War tax resistance in the Mennonite Church was finally running on all cylinders by 1973, and "Gospel Herald" was reporting that process and helping it along with editorial support.
Duane and Esther Diller penned a letter to President Nixon in 1974, methodically explaining their war tax resistance in a way that could serve as a model for other Mennonite resisters.
Mennonite-inspired war tax resistance began to sprout in Japan in 1975, as the Mennonite Church in the U.S. and Canada continued to wrestle with the issue.
War tax resistance was on the front burner at Mennonite Church bodies and gatherings through 1976 and 1977, according to coverage in "Gospel Herald."
A variety of Mennonite conferences met in 1978 for a collective consultation about the propriety of paying war taxes, and "A New Call to Peacemaking" urged the traditional peace churches to take a stronger war tax resistance stand.
In 1979, the Mennonite Church had the luxury of playing spectator as their cousins in the General Conference Mennonite Church wrestled with war taxes at a special conference. Meanwhile: a conservative backlash was organizing, and peace tax fund advocates were ramping up their lobbying campaign.
In 1980 there was a lot of discussion of war tax resistance, and a lot of individual Mennonite war tax refusal and redirection, but Mennonite Church institutions seemed more reluctant than their General Conference to take corporate stands supporting their war tax refusing employees.
1981 was marked by heated debate in the pages of "Gospel Herald" about war tax resistance, while Mennonite Church institutions continued to struggle with whether or how to take a stand.
Hopes that the U.S. court system might recognize a Constitutional right to conscientious objection to military taxation were dashed in 1982, as the debate about war tax resistance continued in the Mennonite Church.
Somehow I introduce a profane description of Christian agape by William S. Burroughs into a discussion about the state of war tax resistance in the Mennonite Church in 1983.
The debate about war tax resistance continued at a simmer through 1984, and by the end of the year it was clear that the Mennonite Church would have to have the same debate about withholding taxes from its employees' salaries that had occupied the General Conference Mennonite Church the previous year.
The debate about whether or not to pay war taxes, and about whether Mennonite institutions should be more accommodating of the requests of their employees not to have war taxes deducted from their salaries, continued in 1985, and edged ever closer to the Mennonite Church itself.
War tax resistance was a hot topic of meetings and protests and study groups in Mennonite circles in 1986, but the Mennonite Central Committee seemed reluctant to take a stand.
In 1987, it seemed to me I started to see a lot more content in the "Gospel Herald" bemoaning how "our tax dollars" were financing this or that government-sponsored horror without going one step further and suggesting how people could stop their taxes, at least, from being spent in that way.
In 1988 the Mennonite Church danced right up to the brink of committing to corporate war tax resistance, as other church bodies around them considered their own similar actions. But the anti-resistance conservatives were getting restless.
In 1989 the Mennonite Church General Assembly would hold a long-overdue vote on whether or not to support war tax resistance as an institution. Also: on this date in 1971, a "War Tax Resistance Caravan" started out on a bicycle tour of New England.
After the Mennonite Church General Assembly voted to begin war tax resistance as a body, the general board of the Mennonite Church tried to come up with ways to avoid implementing that decision. The 1990–91 issues of "Gospel Herald" tell some of the tale.
Between the distracting hope of Peace Tax Fund legislation, and a newly-organized conservative anti-tax-resistance faction, in 1992 the war tax resistance tide started to recede in the Mennonite Church. Among the symptoms of decay were pleas for new resisters to refuse some tiny, safe, token amount of taxes in lieu of more firm resistance.
In the early 1990s talk of war tax resistance in the Mennonite Church slowed to a crawl. It was only a few years back that such talk had risen to a frenzy, and the subject was a regular topic of debate in the Church. Now: not so much.
By 1995, not only was war tax resistance in retreat in the Mennonite Church, but congregations were even starting to admit active-duty members of the military as members in good standing.
"Gospel Herald" ceased publication as an independent magazine at the beginning of 1998, merging with "The Mennonite" as the Mennonite Church merged with the General Conference Mennonite Church. Today I'll show some of the final mentions of tax resistance in the magazine before the merger.
I try to sum up what we've learned from more than 130 years of back issues of the Mennonite Church magazine "Gospel Herald" and its coverage of Mennonite debates over paying taxes and other government demands for war funding.
American Mennonites who refused to buy war bonds were victims of patriotic mobs and government persecution during World War Ⅰ, as told in Jonas S. Hartzler's "Mennonites in the World War, or Nonresistance Under Test."
A new war tax resistance redirection fund is being proposed at the Mennonite Church U.S.A. biennial conference next month. It would breathe new life into a fund first established over 35 years ago but that has lately been dormant.
In 1979 readers of the Messenger learned the legal how-tos of war tax resistance, while even the conservative Brethren Evangelist was willing to publish "New Call to Peacekeeping"'s summons to war tax resistance.
Tax resistance in the "Peace Churches" → Quakers → 20th–21st century Quakers → Joseph Olejak
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Notes about the current tax resistance of Kenneth O'Keefe and Joseph Olejak, and about tax resistance as it was practiced in Britain's American colonies.
Friends Journal reviews "American Quaker War Tax Resistance." Also: current war tax resistance news, including mentions of American war tax resisters Susan Cundiff, Peg Morton, Joseph Olejak, and Erica Weiland.
Is the Northern League crying wolf again with its tax strike? Also: The fate of one U.S. tax resister who refused to file a return. And: jailed U.S. war tax resister Joseph Olejak looks forward. Also: a communist-led tax boycott in Kerala. And: the trustees can't tear down tollgates fast enough in Wales.
American Quaker war tax resister Joseph Olejak writes from jail. Tax Day 2015 protests are coming up. Two Spanish activists form a shell company in an off-shore tax haven in a counter-capitalist stunt. And: are actors Greg Wise and Emma Thompson really refusing to pay taxes?
The Friends Journal has run a second collection of writings from Joseph Olejak's jail experiences. Olejak served a series of 26 weekends at Columbia County (New York) Jail as part of his sentence for tax resistance.
No, you won't go to jail if you don't pay your federal income tax. Here's a look at the numbers. Also: lots of news about war tax resisters and tax resisters of other sorts as the U.S. tax filing deadline approaches.
Miscellaneous tax resisters → individual war tax resisters → Ruth Benn
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We're a long way from April 15th, the war tax resistance movement's traditional fifteen minutes of fame, and yet the news is full of war tax resisters doing their thing.
More tax day news, including "Burma Shave"-style protest signs in Oregon, an interview with NWTRCC coordinator Ruth Benn, and Ashby Crowder reminding taxpayers that conscientious objection isn't just for those in uniform.
It is going to take a lot of work to convince people that you don't have to live under the poverty line to live under the tax line — even people in the war tax resistance movement who should know better.
Self-restraint as consent, pre-dawn protests at military processing centers, how to get a conscientious vegetarian to fund your meat habit by keeping empty promises, and how to spend thousands of dollars on coffee without really trying.
More on the I.R.S.'s new W-4 strategy, debates about the size of the tax gap (and some ideas on how to increase it), and the I.R.S. loses in court yet again while trying to close the flat-rate long distance loophole.
War tax resisters Ruth Benn, Jim Allen, Becky Pierce, Jim Stockwell, Peter Smith, Ellyn Stecker, and Susan Quinlan are profiled in newspaper articles about tax resistance.
A Daily Kos contributor reminds liberals that the "power of the purse" doesn't begin and end with Congress, but with them. Also: Ruth Benn of NWTRCC advises activists who want to take a step beyond marching with signs and lobbying politicians.
The War Resisters League's annual "pie chart" shows you where your income tax money really goes. Also: Ruth Benn of NWTRCC explains war tax resistance on Ashland, Oregon's KSKQ.
SmartMoney covers the war tax resistance beat. And: Cindy Sheehan is urging Americans to resist their taxes. Also: I fill my home for free, and some people fill their bellies much the same way. And: if it oinks like a pig and it wallows like a pig it's probably the latest Iraq War emergency supplemental funding legislation.
War tax resisters hit the radio waves and the newspapers across America as "Tax Day" approaches. Also: the adolescent sophistry of the tax protester set hits The Picket Line's comment section. And: a review of "Off the Books."
Dave Ross recycles bits of my appearance on his radio show for a commentary that has the Freepers screaming. Also: here's the audio from Ruth Benn's appearance on the Marc Germain show.
To what extent does paying taxes to the government make you responsible for what the government does? That turns out to be a very hard question. Also: The Money Magazine article I'm in is finally on-line. And: Ruth Benn eulogizes Ralph DiGia. Also: is war tax resistance futile, or scrappy? And: United for Peace & Justice breaks my heart.
Karl Hess's tax resistance in Time magazine, Ruth Benn interviewed on Australian radio, and a remarkable proposal from Cato Unbound.
Ruth Benn reports back from the 12th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns in Manchester, England.
Ruth Benn tells us more about the 12th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns, and I reflect on whether war tax resisters have much in common with peace tax fund scheme promoters, or whether we'd be better off doing some outreach to other varieties of tax resister instead.
An American libertarian-oriented tax resistance campaign that calls itself the "Slave Uprising" gets ready to launch. Also: more impressions of the recent international conference on war tax resistance and peace tax campaigns, highlighting the differences between the United States and European countries. And: the Wall Street Journal profiles Gene Sharp, wrist-slaps for murderous soldiers, and the release of the Peace Tax Seven movie.
A brief report from the NWTRCC conference in Eugene, Oregon. Also: Melissa Etheridge joins the emerging tax resistance movement to protest government discrimination against same-sex marriage.
I report back from the NWTRCC conference in Eugene, Oregon. Lots of news about frivolous filing penalties, the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act debate, the aftermath of the recent election, the future of the War Tax Boycott, and much more.
Ruth Benn shares her notes from the recent NWTRCC national gathering. Also: more people pile on the gay rights tax resistance bandwagon. And: Ron Paul salutes tax resisters from within the bowels of the House of Representatives.
If you're interested in starting a regular regional gathering of war tax resisters in your area, NWTRCC is eager to help, and can help you both with expertise and with seed money.
The most contentious item on the agenda at the NWTRCC Spring national gathering was our organization's relationship with the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act and with the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, a long-time affiliate of NWTRCC, which promotes the act.
More reports from the national NWTRCC gathering earlier this month. Also: a report on the barter economy, the federal government's vast borrowing, an update on Charles Merrill's tax resistance court battle for same-sex marriage rights, and the civil rights movement seen as a successful (nonviolent) revolutionary insurgency.
More than fifty war tax resisters from across the country (and a few WTR-curious from the Boston area and elsewhere) gathered at the Cambridge Friends Meeting house last night at the opening session of the joint National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Meeting Fall gathering / 25th annual New England Gathering of War Tax Resisters and Supporters.
Maurice McCrackin fasts while in jail for war tax resistance in 1958. Also: some notes on phone tax resistance from this date in 2005 and 1998.
NWTRCC announces this year's crop of "tax day" war tax resistance actions. Also: "tax day" newspaper articles from years past cover the war tax resistance of Max Sandin, Joan Baez, Irwin Hogenauer, Raymond Hunthausen, Clare Hanrahan, Susan Quinlan, Larry Harper, Bill Ramsey, Ruth Benn, Mary Ann C. Holtz, and Karl Meyer.
Notes from the Social Justice Networking panel at the NWTRCC conference earlier this month, resolving a tangle of taxpatriatism, and a look back at the conviction of war tax resister Ellis Rece in 1972.
A guest post from a war tax resister who participated in the Occupy Freedom Plaza event, and some additional comments about the Occupy Wall Street and related protests.
An overview and update on the Greek tax resistance movement from the New York Times. Also: Ed Hedemann and Ruth Benn talk war tax resistance on Cindy Sheehan's radio show.
A search through the archives for more information about war tax resisters Art Harvey and Elizabeth Gravalos.
Catholic bishops get all bent about being forced to pay for contraceptive-coverage in the health insurance of their employees, and war tax resisters ask "hey, what about us?" Also: resistance to the "Household Tax" in Ireland, and to the many fee hikes in Greece. And: the I.R.S. is getting overwhelmed by a cottage industry of tax fraud via identity theft.
Some video from the recent NWTRCC national conference. Also: Heinrich Böll refused to pay a tax to the Catholic Church in 1972 — a tax that is still causing controversy today, as the German Catholic Church has decided to effectively excommunicate Catholics who refuse to pay their government-mediated church tax. And: a couple of American war tax resisters ran for office — how'd they do?
Some documents from the New England regional war tax resistance gathering concerning whether war tax resistance is a politically potent action. Also: Welsh miners went on strike against the income tax in 1919.
Ruth Benn, Ed Hedemann, and Cindy Sheehan talk war tax resistance this evening. Also: income tax resistance in the campaign for expanded citizenship rights in the Northern Territory of Australia in 1919.
Tomorrow I leave for the 14th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns in Bogotá, Colombia. Expect things to be a little quieter around here for the next month. Also: tax resistance in Catalonia, more on the War Resisters International war tax capitulation, and an update on prisoner tax fraud.
I.R.S. agents are going well beyond the law to police the attitudes and activities of groups applying for tax-exempt status, as recent cases involving anti-abortion groups show.
The 100th anniversary of the Turra Coo. Ruth Benn looks back on the life of New York war tax resister Sallie Marx. Erica Weiland gives some practical year-end war tax resistance advice. The I.R.S. struggles to bring its computer systems out of the punch-card era. And cable operators in India band together and go dark to protest a new entertainment tax.
Tax resistance news from Cyprus and Michoacán, a profile of long-time war tax resister Robin Harper, and some archives from the British poll tax rebellion of the Thatcher years.
American war tax resisters ride the Tax Day media wave, including Erica Weiland, Jack Payden-Travers, William Ruhaak, David Hartsough, Susan Quinlan, and Ruth Benn.
A critical look at Obamacare from a tax resistance perspective, an announcement of a major divestment from U.S. "private" prisons, research into attitudes toward the ethics of tax evasion, and tax resistance news from Zimbabwe, Brittany, Ireland, and Spain.
American war tax resistance news, featuring Ruth Benn's visit to Milwaukee and some Catholic Worker archives, Juanita Nelson telling her stories, and a profile of S. Brian Willson. Also: is Puerto Rico a workable tax haven for Americans? And: the government sends in the troops to repress Rebecca.
A report that 20 people were killed and another 10 wounded after refusing to pay a "war tax" to the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Also: people in Wales air their grievances, and get listened to for a change, thanks to Rebecca.
Tax resistance news from the U.S., Italy, Mexico, Brazil, and the U.K.
The latest NWTRCC newsletter is out with reports from the recent national gathering and other news of interest to war tax resisters. Also: there seems to be more than the usual buzz about tax resistance on-line these days.
A pacifist who refused to buy ostensibly voluntary war bonds got a 28-month prison stint in Montana during World War Ⅰ. What would you tell the government about your war tax resistance? Can U.S. war tax resisters be organized? 2015 shaping up to be a banner year for tax evasion. And: a tax strike in Indonesia.
A new issue of the newsletter of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee brings us the latest news about war tax resistance.
Anton Nelson, one of the more obscure members of the early modern American war tax resistance movement. Also: a new NWTRCC video highlights letters from war tax resisters explaining their stands. And: more about the War Resisters League pie chart representing the federal discretionary spending budget.
War tax resisters like Ruth Benn and Peter Smith take advantage of Tax Day to get the word out. Also: how the Peacemakers, and resisters like Walter Gormly and William C. Davidon did the same in years gone by.
Some audio and audio/video recordings of presentations and panels from recent NWTRCC national conferences are now on-line. Here's a sampling.
Ron Paul calls for mass war tax resistance, the Stamp Act Riots turn 250, the tactic of paying your taxes in pennies, ideas for repairing the Peace Tax Fund, remembering how Julian Bond was inspired by Quaker war tax resisters, and a tax resistance struggle in Russian-occupied Abkhazia in 1866.
War tax resistance gatherings in New England and Las Vegas, the impending "shared responsibility" fines of Obamacare, private tax collection agencies are back in the U.S., and the death of "show-me-the-law" tax protester Irwin Schiff.
It's "Tax Day" in the United States, and American war tax resisters are pressing their cases in the media. Appearances by Barbara & Harold Penner, Linda & Titus Peachey, Berry & Sharon Friesen, Janet & John Stoner, Erica Weiland, Ruth Benn, David Zarembka, Ed Hedemann, and Sue Barnhart, among others.
A collection of links to news and notes about war tax resistance and other tax resistance campaigns around the world.
The authoritative story about the legal consequences of federal tax noncompliance in the U.S. Plus: a flurry of news stories about war tax resisters, featuring Ed Hedemann, Robert Randall, and Ruth Benn. A boycott is targeting Trump family products. Tax agencies are trying to figure out ways to target bitcoin. And a new tax in Belarus confronts widespread noncompliance.
Some nonviolence-oriented groups have issued a joint call for activists to begin to dip their toes in tax resistance. Also: the Village Voice reports on the emerging anti-Trump tax resistance movement. And: countering journalistic misconceptions about tax resistance.
The Pentagon budget will undergo its very first audit after trillions of dollars in unapproved spending are discovered. How much of a tax gap remains in Europe's VAT? A new Thoreau biography. Greeks fight back against the government utility monopoly. War tax resistance continues to decay in Britain's Society of Friends. Spanish war tax resisters redirect to help refugees. And: implications of the new American tax law.
War tax resistance has potential synergy with other activist concerns. Also: a look back at Priscilla Adams's Supreme Court petition asserting a legal right to conscientious objection to military taxation in 2000.
How to form a local affinity group of war tax resisters. Also: a dispatch from the No Tax for War in Vietnam Committee of 1965.
The Women's Tax Resistance League is explained in a lecture by Helen Thornley. Also: persisting in protesting, tax day after tax day. Another suspicious package shuts down another I.R.S. building. Tax strike in North Kivu. Tax resistance urged in Imo, Nigeria. And Australian tax refusers are very likely to come out ahead, even if they are caught and fined and ordered to pay up.
War tax resisters from around the country met in Los Angeles last weekend to discuss strategy and the state of the movement. Also: I get another letter from the I.R.S.
The gilets jaunes ("yellow vests") demonstrations continue in France, blocking refineries, ports, and oil depots, and torching toll booths. Also: The siege of the Corner/Kehler home in Colrain is commemorated at a New England war tax resister gathering.