August 17, 2010
Dear Internal Revenue Service,
I am writing in response to a tax return overdue notice sent to me on May 24, 2010, regarding my “US Individual Income Tax Return” for the tax period of “12-31-2008.”
It is my intention to decline to submit a tax return for the aforementioned tax period, or for any tax period henceforth, until such time as the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill, denoted in the House of Representatives as H.R. 2085, is passed in the U.S. Congress, enabling taxpaying citizens to uphold their religious and ethical objections to financing war and senseless murder abroad by the U.S. military. My elected officials have also been notified of these intentions accordingly.
Moreover, it is my international legal obligation, under the Nuremberg Principles agreed to by the United Nations, to refuse to assist the U.S. government in committing crimes against peace, war crimes, and/or crimes against humanity. The current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the treatment of prisoners detained in the “War on Terror”, as well as the role of the U.S. military and military aid abroad in general, have engendered such crimes and the blood is on the hands of those who paid for the weapons. For me to support the continuance financially of this bloodshed would render me complicit their execution.
Although I support the democratic process, I have seen that the requests of citizens for peace and the re-direction of tax monies for humanitarian efforts at home and abroad have had little effect on the politicians in power. My only recourse is to withdraw my tacit support of their policies by refusing to fund their decisions. I have and will continue to instead re-direct my money towards more just and worthy causes—humanitarian and environmental efforts which are currently unsupported by our government in favor of building more missiles and fighter planes. Or else to hold my tax money in escrow until such time as it can be put towards a more sane use than occupying nations and subjugating foreign populaces at a time when our own population is in dire economic straights.
Please note that I am wholeheartedly willing to reap the consequences of this moral decision, in the rich tradition of other war tax resisters before me. Although I may be punished domestically for upholding ethical action, I cannot willingly assist the IRS in collecting more funds for the
U.S. war machine.
Earnestly,
Robert L. Stenger III
St. George, Maine
