16 April 2018
Dear good people at the IRS,
Enclosed is my 1040-V Payment Voucher for my 2017 taxes.
You will find a check in the amount of $1,268 due for self-employment tax (social security tax).
You will note that I have NOT paid my income tax due ($261). I would like to explain why.
I feel compelled to join the ranks of those who cannot, in good conscience, support our government’s preparation for violence and war as a means to peace and cooperation in our global community.
As Martin Luther King said so many years ago:
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
Human centered values such as education, health care, alternative energies, infrastructure development and an awareness of our global responsibility among the wealthiest countries on earth must be emphasized over the current values this country currently demonstrates through our continued prioritization of extensive and excessive military expenditures. Real security will be achieved through sharing and caring, NOT through more tanks, bombers, nuclear submarines, military bases and armed soldiers sent all over the world.
A tremendous portion of our federal tax dollars goes towards “defense” some of that in the form of the current military budget and some for the payment of past wars (and debt for past wars). This I find (and I hope you do to) to be a policy that is contrary to the life-affirming spiritual and humane values and traditions of the world.
This protest is not meant as a protest against the IRS – you are simply the messenger of a crime in which I cannot participate.
I am not a tax evader. The money I refuse to pay the U.S. Government is paid to an alternate fund promoting life-affirming activities.
Sincerely and with appreciation,
Jan Passion
2230 Lisa Lane
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
“I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to (or to fund) war.”
— Einstein
