Lauren Tepper
April 3, 2011 Dear IRS Personnel: I am thankful to live in a country that allows freedom of speech. For years I have been exercising my right of free speech by protesting the United States’ aggressive militarism. However, it seems that my voice and the voices of so many others who abhor war have gone… Continue reading
David and Jan Hartsough (2011)
March 30, 2011 Dear Friends at the IRS: As we approach April 15 and are again asked to contribute close to half of our tax dollars for the military and wars – past, present and future – we have to ask ourselves whether this is really how we want to spend our hard earned money. Our… Continue reading
Striving for 100% CO
Tim Pluta While serving in the military, it finally occurred to me one day that I might be called upon to kill somebody. I didn’t like the idea very much, so I ended up applying to get out as a conscientious objector (CO). Following a lengthy investigation, the U.S. armed services considered my beliefs to… Continue reading
Choose Life or Death
By Patricia Tompkins I just heard on National Public Radio this quote from a Chinese entrepreneur who became an organic farmer. “By chasing after money, we have forgotten the essence of life.” For me, the essence of life is connection to the land and to each other because without the first we cannot live and… Continue reading
War Tax Resisting
By Heather Snow, Durango, Colorado When I was a young girl around the age of 10, I already understood what a corrupt world we lived in. I had a deep distrust for society and mostly government. I had a few jobs when I was 17, and decided not to pay my taxes as a statement… Continue reading
Robert Stenger
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… Continue reading
Douglas and Maureen Mackenzie
April 18, 2010 Dear IRS employee: IRS rules indicate that we owe the IRS $573. Tax receipts extorted by the IRS from the American people under violence and/or threat of violence are used by the U.S. government and its armed death forces to pay interest on the debt incurred to wage wars of aggression for the benefit… Continue reading
Jordan Taylor and Mariana Garrettson (2010)
April 14, 2010 Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service Center Atlanta, Ga 39901-0102 To Whom it May Concern: My wife and I are filing our form 1040 but cannot in good conscience comply with the payment instructions. We were both raised Quaker (The Religious Society of Friends), one of the three traditional Peace Churches,… Continue reading
David and Jan Hartsough (2010)
April 5, 2010 Dear Friends at the IRS: As we approach April 15 and are again asked to contribute close to half of our tax dollars for the military and wars – past, present and future – we have to ask ourselves whether this is really how we want to spend our hard earned money…. Continue reading
Journeys Begin with the First Step
by DeCourcy Squire It is late winter in the 1950s. My father is closeted with lots of receipts, trying to figure out the taxes. Although he is a brilliant mathematician, he finds arithmetic, especially in these pre-calculator days, tedious and it makes him cross. My brother and I tiptoe around, careful not to disturb him…. Continue reading
Live and Love
by Mimi Copp Jesus says to love your enemies and your neighbors. In some ways, that is all that needs to be said as to why I have decided to redirect my federal tax dollars away from war-making and towards life giving initiatives. I can’t figure out how to justify the killing of those who… Continue reading
Wiser and More Determined
by Becky Pierce I have been a war tax resister for the past 43 years, all of my adult working life. Since 1989, when I stopped filing tax returns, I’ve gotten very little attention from the IRS. Because I am self-employed, my income is not normally reported to the IRS. But a little over a year ago… Continue reading
