Today in History: Adams v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
Sixteen years ago, the 3rd Circuit of the US Court of Appeals ruled against Priscilla Adams. She asserted that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) should accommodate her refusal to pay taxes that would go to war. However, the court maintained that mandating universal compliance with the tax law was the “least restrictive means” under… Continue reading
“One of the most important spiritual directors in my life has been the Internal Revenue Service”
Kathy Kelly is a long-time peace activist and the co-founder of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a NWTRCC affiliate. She has been a war tax resister since 1980, and while she hasn’t gone to jail for her war tax refusal, she has been arrested dozens of times for civil disobedience actions. Through her work, she has… Continue reading
A Good Reason to Refuse to Pay War Taxes
Many of us got involved in war tax resistance because of nuclear weapons. For myself, I heard Dr. Helen Caldicott speak sometime back around 1980. She was passionate — and scary — about the dangers of nukes. The disaster at Three Mile Island led her to leave her medical career, become president of Physicians for… Continue reading
Is War Tax Resistance Elitist?
War tax resister David Gross recently appeared on the Litopia After Dark podcast (discussing some of his countercultural/culture-jamming activities in addition to tax resistance and his book, 99 Tactics of Successful Tax Resistance Campaigns). Co-host Peter Cox repeatedly stated that being a war tax resister was “elitist.” He even said, “Most people can’t do [war… Continue reading
Update on the Affordable Care Act as War Tax Redirection
by Robert Randall Note: This is a follow-up to Robert’s previous post from June 2014. Having now had a chance to further experience the Affordable Care Act (ACA, often called Obamacare) and see how it really works tax-wise, I wish to both correct some errors in my previous post and further expand on its potential… Continue reading
Organizations Supporting War Tax Resisters
We recently updated the text version of our Practical War Tax Resistance #6 pamphlet, Organizational War Tax Resistance, and will update the print version sometime in the future. In this pamphlet, we feature stories about businesses and nonprofits that support their employees and independent contractors in war tax resistance, and get into the details of… Continue reading
Individual Choices and Movement Building: Shall the Twain Meet?
War tax resisters do not tend toward weeping over the latest news that the IRS budget is declining, that it is short staffed and has lots more work to do thanks to the Affordable Care Act. As a resister with ten years of tax debt myself, I’m not in a big rush for them to… Continue reading
Dear IRS, Dear Congress, Dear Military-Industrial Complex – Call for Submissions
Do you: Write to the IRS about war tax resistance? Send letters to your congressperson? Enclose a letter when you redirect resisted war taxes, explaining where the money comes from? Write to any other entities or people about war tax resistance near Tax Day? Want to start writing letters about war tax resistance now? I’m… Continue reading
Holiday Notes
We’ll take a blog break next week and come back with a post on January 7. In the meantime, I wanted to draw your attention toward some war resistance and war tax resistance thoughts: This Christmas marks the 100th anniversary of the Christmas Truce of World War I. Learn more about the Christmas Truce. Hanukkah… Continue reading
Will I Get Audited?
In meeting with a new war tax resister recently, his first questions were about what will happen when he refuses to pay. “I expect an agent will come to my door, and I’ll be audited,” he said. There was a time some decades ago when many war tax resisters (WTRs) were audited, but that is… Continue reading
On Strategy and the Reduction of the Military Budget
One brief discussion I had at our November conference was about what we ought to do to reduce or eliminate military spending. One person argued that we should set some sort of goal for what we wanted military spending to be reduced to, as a starting point for discussion. For example, campaigning to reduce military… Continue reading
David Zarembka on US Militarization of East Africa
Listen to an audio recording (opens a new tab) of a workshop presented by David Zarembka, Coordinator of the African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams in East Africa. David spoke at the war tax resistance gathering at Earlham College School of Religion, November 8, 2014. While you are listening to his talk,… Continue reading
