Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service
March 24, 2024
To Whom It May Concern:
Enclosed is my completed Form 1040 tax return for the year 2023 including the necessary schedules. I have underpaid for the year. This letter explains why, as a matter of conscience, I am not paying a symbolic portion of my taxes this year. Approximately 53% of US tax dollars go toward war or the preparation for war. As someone who is responsible for paying $XXXX in Federal Income Taxes, that means that if I pay my taxes in full, I am being compelled to contribute $XXXX to war efforts that I oppose as a matter of conscience. Therefore, for the year 2023, I am redirecting $100 of my unpaid tax liability to support humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza in protest of the fact that my government is using my tax dollars to fund a genocide in Gaza.
As I write this letter, over 32,000 civilians in Gaza have been killed by US weapons and with US support. Tens of thousands of the dead are children. The International Court of Justice has judged that what Israel is doing in Gaza is plausibly a genocide, which means that the US government and all people of conscience are obligated to do our part to try to prevent genocide. Instead, the US government has just authorized even more funding for the horrors that everyone is seeing daily on social media and the news.
Under these circumstances, and as a religious Jew who takes my obligation to pikuach nefesh – the saving of life – very seriously, I must do something to clearly indicate that this slaughter is something I oppose. I recognize that my choice to redirect a mere $100 of my tax liability does nothing to stop a war effort that is costing our country billions of dollars. Nonetheless, knowing how this money will be used, I cannot simply pay my taxes quietly this year.
I believe that as members of a society, taxation is necessary, and I understand that as a taxpaying citizen I will always have to contribute toward efforts with which I might disagree. However, war crimes are a category outside of the ordinary functions of government, and I will continue to seek out ways to express and enact my opposition to the US participation in war crimes in Palestine and elsewhere in the world. Every morning when I daven, I pray: oseh shalom bimromav hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu (May the one who makes peace in the heavens make peace for us and all the world). This act is one small way of working toward the world of peace for which I pray daily. I hope that others will join me, and that one day we can have peace for all who dwell on earth.
Sincerely,
Nicole Erin Morse
West Palm Beach, FL
