[Editor’s Note: The Mennonite Church USA recently awarded John Stoner with the Bring the Peace Award. In February, Jessica Griggs, blog editor for MC USA, interviewed John. The original interview with video can be found at tinyurl.com/4v549s64. This interview is published with the permission of MC USA.] Q: What does “bring the peace” mean to… Continue reading
I am a “Symbolic Resister”
By Shirley Whiteside Back in December 2021, I wrote a letter to my 2 U.S. Senators—with no expectation—just a need to vent. I had written to both about U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Rand Paul’s joint resolution that would have stopped the arms sale to Saudi Arabia for use in its war on Yemen…. Continue reading
David & Janet Hartsough 2023
April 14, 2023 Dear Friends at the IRS, We are Quakers and cannot in good conscience pay for the killing of other human beings, or pay for war and preparations for war. Human life is too precious to drop bombs on people because we do not like their governments. Developing a new generation of nuclear… Continue reading
James Haber 2022
April 15, 2022 Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service Fresno, CA 93888-0002 To Whom It May Concern: Enclosed is my completed Form 1040 tax return for the year 2021 including the necessary schedules. I have underpaid for the year. This letter, along with the enclosed War Resisters League “pie chart,” explains why, as a… Continue reading
Randy Kehler Betsy Corner
Dear IRS – As in past years, you will find enclosed our federal tax forms which we have filled out as accurately as possible. What you will not find enclosed is any payment. This is because we cannot in good conscience willingly pay for the wars and killing perpetrated by our government, nor for the… Continue reading
Letter to the IRS: Chris Moore-Backman
April 15, 2022 To Whom It May Concern at the Internal Revenue Service: Please find my enclosed 1040 form for tax year 2021. I’m including this letter in order to explain why payment for my calculated 2021 tax of $1970.00 is not also enclosed. Since 2000, I have refused payment of my taxes because US… Continue reading
Starting to Live by My Own Rules
By Angie Morben I’ve always been such a rule-follower. As I look back on life, I realize how much I blindly followed the rules simply because they had been established by some higher “authority.” I was that way throughout childhood and all the way into adulthood. This rule-following behavior included unquestionably paying my taxes without… Continue reading
Funding a Livable Future
By Sue Barnhart We woke up to black smoky air the day after Labor Day 2020. It was challenging to breathe outside, even with a N95 mask. We could not see the sun. The air quality index was over 500— the extremely hazardous range. Our beautiful Oregon was burning up. The trails we love hiking… Continue reading
Letter to IRS: Former State Department Worker Refuses to Pay for Killing Civilians
Dear friends at the IRS, I am withholding 20% of my taxes this year as I cannot morally or legally support the U.S. military’s indiscriminate killing of many thousands of innocent civilians, including several U.S. citizens, in recent years. The intentional killing of U.S. civilians (three in Yemen in Sept. 2011) “without due process of… Continue reading
War Tax Resistance, Self-Employment, and Health Insurance
By Ilene Roizman – December 2020 Decisions, Decisions It’s a thorny problem when the complications of obtaining health insurance intersect with the desire to remain a nonfiling tax resister. This is exactly where I found myself when my luck ran out on the premium tax credit. As a self-employed freelancer, I have to purchase my… Continue reading
Taxes, Relationships, and Competing Priorities
By Lindsey Britt – October 2021 Since I began thinking about war tax resistance I’ve been struggling with the desire to reduce my income to avoid paying taxes for things I find abhorrent and, simultaneously, wanting to transfer more of my power (in the form of money) to organizations and individuals doing good. My mind… Continue reading
I Act Out my Prayers by Saying “NO” to Paying for War
By Sylvia Shirk – August 2020 Tax Day, April 15, has become one of my favorite annual events. It is a day of peacemaker empowerment. I smile as I write checks and send online donations to support peace and justice organizations that I care about. I hum on my way to mail the United States… Continue reading
