First-Time Resister’s Letter to the IRS

[Editor’s Note: Many people, including several new war tax resisters, have been gracious enough to share their letter to the IRS with us. Just a reminder that we will be holding our next NWTRCC gathering on Zoom, May 3-5, 2024. Many long-time and first-time war tax resisters have already registered. Here is the full schedule & registration page.]

Photo of Marie Oliverio.

To Whom It May Concern,

Enclosed is the 1040 form for tax year 2023.

I, in sound mind, aligned spirit and in resistance to centuries of capitalist-fueled violence, am resisting war taxes and withholding $560, in loving honor of and fierce comradeship with the over 30,035 people killed in the US-funded IDF attack on Palestine. I refuse to be complicit in the United States empire’s militarism, funding of genocides and oppression, on this land and in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Ukraine, and in the war crimes committed in Afghanistan and Iraq during my childhood. The myths of freedom in this country are held up, shakily, by the theft of land and liberation of peoples the world over, including those it claims as “citizens.”

My anger and pain are justified, righteous, spiritual and are not solely my own; my small resistance of withholding the money I earned within this system is representative of a collective trauma, and in turn a collective resistance, that the IRS, the United States military, and the corrupt values that uphold oppression will not scare out of us any longer. I am divesting from militarism, from war, and investing in community, healing, and true liberation.

Free Palestine, free us all.

Marie Oliverio