Chris Toussaint
Why I am refusing to pay my income tax As April 15, 2004 approaches I have decided to file a 1040 tax return but to withhold sending the IRS any money for taxes I may owe. This decision was not made hastily or without a lot of thought. Over the years, and especially the last… Continue reading
Manuel Shah (2004)
Los Angeles, CA 90013 15 April 2004 Dear Internal Revenue Service of United States Government I vehemently oppose the current U.S.-led attack and occupation of Iraq and the use of our military in Afghanistan. Roughly 50% of our income tax dollars are spent on the military. This expenditure of federal tax dollars drains resources from… Continue reading
Peter Meyers
Pete Meyers April 15, 2004 Internal Revenue Service Andover, MA 05501-0002 Dear Internal Revenue Service Person: I enclose this letter with my completed tax form as an explanation about why I cannot, in good conscience, pay the tax money that is demanded of me by the I.R.S. and the United States government, $1,655.25, for the… Continue reading
David Meyers
April 15, 2004 Dear IRS: Another year has passed, and I notice that your work is still primarily to collect money to buy weapons to conduct wars and brutalize people all over the world. Even the money you collect that is not directly earmarked for war is most often used for nefarious activities, including for… Continue reading
My War Tax Resistance Journey
by Carol Moore In 1975, while living in New York City, I was involved in radical feminism and political comedy, song-writing and play writing. I started supporting myself working off the books. Come April 15, 1976, I found that I owed the IRS more than $1000. I worked double shifts for two months to raise the money…. Continue reading
Conscientious Objection and Encounters with the IRS
James Satterwhite, 1946 – 2016 “If we could read the secret histories of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In 1969, as I was graduating from college in Florida at the height of the war in Vietnam, I faced a dilemma…. Continue reading
Tamika Beyer 2003
The Hand April, 2003 This is a protest poem but I’m not sure to whom I should register my complaint. I would like to protest the dismembered hand draped across a tree branch close to a market in an old neighborhood of Baghdad bombed during its evening peak: packed with women vying for the few,… Continue reading
Anna White
April 12, 2003 Internal Revenue Service Center Philadelphia, PA 19255-0015 To whom it may concern: Last year, $X in federal taxes were withheld from my paycheck. According to my completed income tax return, which is enclosed, I owe the federal government an additional $377. According to the U.S. Constitution, however, I say it is the… Continue reading
Shirley Whiteside
I forgot to pay my income taxes this year. Why would a person do that, you say? Won’t they just steal it from you anyway? Let’s just say if all we have is today, it was what was right for me today. I was anxiously looking at the tax form on April 15—like a lot of… Continue reading
Bronwyn Shiffer
April 15, 2003 Dear Internal Revenue Service of the United States: In recent years I have become more aware of where my tax money goes. This year, I have made a decision of conscience to redirect 47%, the amount of the federal budget spent on the military, of the federal taxes I owe toward building… Continue reading
Peter Meyers (2003)
Internal Revenue Service Andover, MA 05501-0002 April 15 2003 Dear Internal Revenue Service Person: I enclose this letter with my completed tax form as an explanation about why I cannot, in good conscience, pay the tax money that is demanded of me by the I.R.S. and the United States government—$2,494.00—for the 2002 tax year. Approximately… Continue reading
David Meyers (2003)
April 15, 2003 Dear IRS: I had a dream the other night. Maybe you had one like it too. It was based on one of those mind-numbing commercials for credit cards. That guy with the syrupy TV voice did the voice-over, and it went something like this: Cost to the US taxpayer of one Caterpillar… Continue reading
