Tax Day was Wednesday April 15, 2026 and folks throughout the US gathered around this date to raise awareness that well over half of federal income taxes are directed toward war. They also encouraged others to resist paying taxes and redirect money to community needs. You can use these links to find more info on Tax Day actions, our 2026 press release, as well as recent articles and interviews.
International
Global Days of Action on Military Spending, located in Spain, hosted a global Tax Day webinar on April 15th. The event featured speakers from Dismantle the Military Industrial Complex, Public Citizen, the Quincy Institute, and National Priorities Project. They also set aside time for Lincoln Rice from NWTRCC to talk about the staggering increase in war tax resistance this tax season. About 40 people attended.
Arizona
Tucson
Here’s a photo of Jack at the Tucson federal building on Tax Day. There was actually also a second demo that day at Udall Park!
Report and phot by Felice Cohen-Joppa
California
Berkeley
On Sunday April 12, the People’s Life Fund held a granting ceremony, where it redirected $90,000 to community organizations. We offer grants to groups that are providing essential day-to-day human services which the government is not adequately furnishing, and/or addressing the root causes of a problem by engaging in education or action, in the spirit of nonviolence, aimed at social, economic, or political change. Grantees included the Anti-Chevron Day Organizing Committee, Arab Film and Media Institute, OLAS (Organización LGBTQ de Apoyo y Solidaridad), Prisoners Literature Project, Support for Intertribal Gatherings, Unapologetically HERS, and more.
Report and photo by People’s Life Fund.
Chico
The Butte for a Free Palestine group did a tax day table and I did a Penny Poll on the 3rd No Kings Day.
Report & photo by Chris Nelson.
Colorado
Penny Poll in Colorado Springs. Photo courtesy of Warm Cookies of the Revolution.
Colorado Springs
It was a good experience to do the poll at the Denver Warm Cookies of the Revolution Tax Carnival — so many people milling through the games and tables, and great food and entertainers — a unicyclist who juggled, mariachi female band, mind reader…
It was fun to engage folks as they were eager to participate…not always what you get on the street corner! One person noted that it was hard to decide where to put the pennies — we had 7 pennies and 6 categories — one woman noted there was no “arts” category and it’s not even mentioned in the pie chart lists…rather telling! So she put a penny outside of the jars — her own protest statement 😉
The votes are in! counted and re-counted! Education wins!
education 24%
health & human services 21%
environmental protection 18%
food and nutrition programs tie with HUD and housing at 17% each
military trails at 3%
hooray for 128 people voting their priorities!
We also offered a Penny Poll at a recent screening of Earth’s Greatest Enemy, which was sponsored by About Face, a group of post-9/11 military members and veterans organizing to end a foreign war policy of permanent war.
Report and photo from Mary Sprunger-Froese.
Maine
Bangor
We have a weekly vigil/standout every Wednesday at noon to end wars in Iran, Gaza, Ukraine, and everywhere else (we have not said much about Sudan, but it is horrendous there, too). Lo and behold, April 15th happened to be a Wednesday, so we urged a few more people to come at noon and also alerted the local TV stations.
Two (CBS and ABC/Fox) attended and interviewed Josh from the Peace and Justice Center and Adam from Veterans for Peace. At least one station ran a segment of our outrage over a proposed $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget for 2027.
In the past we would say to media, “you can’t eat a missile, no matter how much peanut butter you put on it.” They still taste horrible, enough to make us all sick. It’s time to cut that budget…a lot!
Report by Larry Dansinger
Missouri
St. Louis
Tax Day Vigil in St. Louis. Photo courtesy of St. Louis Catholic Worker.
We almost canceled. The rain stopped and the sun came out. We had an action in downtown St. Louis. Horns honked, people stopped, took selfies and chatted with us about tax day and military spending. People expressed their concern about the costs of war and were supportive of people trying to do anything to stop it. We gathered at the Old Court House (where the Dred Scott decision was made) on April 15th during rush hour. The action coincided with the on-going, weekly anti-war vigil hosted by the local Catholic Worker. We engaged with pedestrians with leaflets, signs and pie charts beneath an azure blue sky. It was a good day.
Report and photo by Chrissy Kirchhoefer
Nevada
Reno
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXFXK9eARO3/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DXFXB3dAeAh/
I recruited six (6) non-profit groups with booths at this year’s Reno Punk Rock Spring Flea (https://www.rprfm.org/) to promote WTR using my redirection by matching scheme.
1. Ask everyone making a donation at their respective booths if they would like their donation matched from resisted taxes.
2. Send them my way if they had questions
3. My booth promoted three things:
W4 resistance “Stick it to the Man”
Q: “What would you do with a Bigger paycheck?”
Redirect resisted taxes “Double your Donation”
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> quote_type
> A: “Ask Me How” to increase local Mutual Aid support
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Penalty Fund
Risk mitigation for tax resisters
If you’re not doing WTR – Support tax resisters
I handed out about 50 each of the following:
Penalty Fund pamplets (http://www.nwtrcc.org/PDFs/WTRPF%20Brochure%202025.pdf)
W4 Resistance pamplets (https://nwtrcc.org/PDFs/w4.pdf)
And about 300 2X2″ stickers I made from nwtrcc graphics and taxstrikenv.com & nwrtcc.org urls
I didn’t accept donations at my booth; I advised any potential donors to either join the Penalty Fund or find a non-profit here at the Spring Flea and give to them.
On Sunday afternoon the non-profits gave me an account of their donations.
Reno Code Pink (https://www.instagram.com/codepinkreno/) representing Rise and Soil Solidarity did really well (more than I could afford).
After discussing the new above-the-line single charitable donation deduction on the W4 worksheet, we decided to spread $100 each amongst all the participating groups ($600 total); that would leave me some budget to give out the rest of the year.
We also made plans for me to pitch WTR and redirection at their local meetings/events with their endorsements!
In between the last three bands we had big-check matching-donation ceremonies for each of the non-profits where they got interviewed by the MC about their group, answered questions from the audience, and described their plans for putting my resisted taxes redirection donation to good use locally.
Reno Punk Rock Flea Market’s Musician Scholarship fund for School of Rock (https://www.schoolofrock.com/locations/reno)
The Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality (RISE) (https://www.renoinitiative.org/)
Soil Solidarity (https://www.soilsolidarity.org/)
The Children’s Cabinet (https://www.childrenscabinet.org/)
Reno Sparks Tenants Union (https://renosparkstenantsunion.org/)
Kitty Kisses Rescue of Reno (https://kittykissescatcafe.com/kitty-kisses-rescue-of-reno/)
Peace n Love Brian
New Mexico
Albuquerque
A student on the University of New Mexico (UNM) campus asked me if I was the only one tabling. I told him I was. He had a rock collection and he gave me a calcite rock that turns pink in the dark. What a sweet gesture!
Over five hours, I gave out about half the number of pieces of literature this year (about 600), the entire rest of my stash that I have been collecting for years. Foot traffic at UNM was about half of last year’s likely because April 15 was on a Wednesday. I imagine students prefer Tuesday-Thursday classes.
At least 10 students were interested in exploring WTR, about the same as last year. This year I met someone whose accountant brings her below taxable income. She joined the New Mexico and the NWTRCC WTR email lists.
Report from Ginny Schneider.
New York
Ithica
We were about ten folks who stood outside the post office for about an hour on Tax Day. We handed out pie charts and engaged people in conversation. Many people thanked us.
Report & photo by Mary Loehr
Manhattan
Tax Day Protest in Manhattan. Photos by Ed Hedemann.
Tax Day (April 15th) –Most years, Tax Day in NYC requires heavy coats and sometimes umbrellas but today, as temperatures crept towards 90, beach wear seemed more appropriate. Also, the heightened attention on taxes resulted in at least four demonstrations by various groups in the city.
Report & Photos from Ed Hedemann
Ohio
Maria (right) at the Tree March. Photo courtesy of Maria Smith.
Cleveland
Cleveland Nonviolence Network and ten co-sponsors had the “Tree March: Plant Trees, Not War.—inspired by Wangari Mathaai and our own Patt Needham, presente-yesterday. It was chilly, but sunny and warm enough to plant saplings. It started at the Langston Hughes Branch of the Cleveland Public Library with two Langston Hughes poems. It had multiple artists and speakers at the end—The Brookdale Orchard—an urban core neighborhood restoration project. Abandoned lots that were acquired by the County Land Bank were purchased and have become parcels for an orchard.
Report and photo from Maria and Charlie
Oregon
Eugene
It was a rainy cold day on April 15th in Eugene. Indivisible Eugene and XR Eugene joined Planet versus Pentagon who protest ICE and war every Wednesday at the old Federal Building in Eugene. Both ICE and the IRS have offices in the building so it was a good place to protest. Sue Barnhart talked about how the military gets over 50% of our tax dollars and over a billion a day has been going to the war in Iran. She stressed how besides our tax dollars being used to kill and maim innocent children and adults it is also being used to destroy flora and fauna and cultural artifacts. And that our US Military emits more carbon then any other entity in the world. Over 30 people held up signs between 3:30 and 6pm through rain, sleet and hail. At one point a group of us from P with a cardboard coffin the size of a child did a processional march around the building and went up to the doors. Many of us were dressed in black and some were dressed as lamenters in sackcloth. Though the building should have been open to the public, the door was locked and though we asked to speak with a representative of the IRS, no one opened the door or even answered us.
Because it was so wet we did not leaflet but did do the penny poll. This year 22 people took the poll. 4 pennies went into the jar for the military and the people who put pennies into that jar said they wanted veterans to get services. Next year we plan to have a separate jar for veterans. The result was .01% for the military. Physical Resources got 17%, The climate and environment got 37%. The General Government got 14% and Human Resources got 32%. Right now our government spends 58% on the military, 6% on general government, 32% on human resources and 4% on physical resources according to the pie chart that the War Resisters League puts out every year.
A local radio station, KEPW interviewed us, KVAL, a local TV station took pictures and ran a story, And a few local papers ran short stories.
Report & Photos from Sue Barnhart.
Portland
Doubling our tax redirection donations from last year, the Oregon Community Peace Fund, redistributed $14,000 to both local social service agencies serving the Portland area and two international groups working to bring aid to the Palestinian community of Gaza. Active WTRs as well as those considering resistance mingled at the Penny Poll and literature table stacked with NWTRCC pamphlets. Five organizations were gifted with $2,800 of resisted taxes and each group gave a brief presentation as to how these resources would be utilized to help ease suffering.
A unique beginning to the event featured a song led by a member of our group to which all in attendance joined in, promoting a spirit of community among all. The poster advertising the event framed our intentions by suggestion those fed up with violent federal priorities “join us as we take tax money away from the military and give it back to the people,” which is exactly what we did!
Report & Photo provided by Paul Stretch
Wisconsin
Madison
World Beyond War-Madison has started building a War Tax Resistance working group in the beginning of 2026. We started by educating people on War Tax Resistance and connecting with NWTRCC resources.
It has been a great way to connect the people across generations and experience with war tax resistance. Our main goals have been to introduce people to NWTRCC and encourage people to include letters of objection with physical tax documents. In March we held a Pi Day gathering to educate people on war tax resistance and military spending.
In April we wrote an OpEd for a local newspaper to publicly express the need to defund US militarism and support local mutual aid groups. Several members choose to redirect war tax dollars (a total of $2,200) to local mutual aid groups. On Tax Day this year, 12 war tax resisters visited the offices of Representative Mark Pocan and Senator Tammy Baldwin to deliver copies of our letters of objection to “defense” spending with taxpayers’ dollars. It was a great opportunity to present anti-war perspectives in person, especially from our Iranian and veteran members. We had meaningful conversations with their staff on the ballooning costs of war and the barbarity of US and Israel actions around the world, but with a current focus on Iran, Lebanon and Palestine.
We have also held presentations with community and church groups. We’ve flyered at marches and downtown Madison to reach out to new people. In May and during the summer we are planning to hold more W-4 and other federal tax resistance workshops. Anecdotally, we are seeing war tax resistance brought up in the media and with our community connections. Every introduction of war tax resistance to someone who hasn’t heard of the concept before is planting the seed of an idea that we hope will grow into meaningful collective action.
Report from April Peterson and photo by Janet Parker.
Milwaukee
On April 11th, Casa Maria Catholic Worker, Milwaukee War Tax Resisters, Welfare Warriors, and Peace Action Wisconsin held a vigil outside the US Army Reserve to protest federal tax dollars for war and genocide. There is a lot of car traffic at this intersection and there seemed to be more honks for peace this year than last year.
Report & photo by Lincoln Rice.