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Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Happy Tax Day
It is impossible to conduct modern warfare without soldiers and weapons. But before governments can buy weapons and hire soldiers, they must first raise the necessary money through taxes or borrowing. War tax resistance is refusing to pay some or all of those federal taxes that contribute to military spending.
Peace.
ntodd
April 17, 2007 in Conscience | Permalink
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Comments
Great in theory, but the govm't always owes me something. I'm all for paying taxes for the social good, but how does one separate the $ that helps us hold up the social contract and the $ for the war? Anyway, the last time I tried to not pay my taxes, someone stepped in and paid them for me. . .
Posted by: skywater | Apr 17, 2007 1:05:24 AM
Read the rest of the link and you'll find answers to all of that.
Some people estimate the amount that goes to the DoD and withhold that. Some people deliberately live below the poverty line to not support the militarized society at all (legally).
As for the government owing you money, change your withholdings. That's just giving them an interest free loan anyway.
Posted by: NTodd | Apr 17, 2007 12:04:36 PM
I disagree with you on this one, NTodd, but I am not unsympathetic to your outlook. For what it's worth, activist singers Charlie King and Karen Brandow (see link from my site) have a great song expressing the same thought you do.
I admire radicals, including antiwar tax resisters, though I cannot be one myself. But IMHO, the single most powerful thing we can do toward defunding discretionary wars is instituting serious election reform. If everyone's votes were counted and applied, enough hawkish bastards would be pitched out of Congress (and of course the White House) that future presidents would find it difficult to get money for their favorite little wars. Of course, this will take longer, but it has the potential to be a longer-term solution than resisting taxes that pay for the current wars.
I have had friends that have "been to jail for justice," as the old song (by Anne Feeney? I'm not sure) has it. Apart from intensely disliking confinement, I have concluded that one can do a lot more out of jail than in it. If the current nefarious crew succeeds in criminalizing simple advocacy, peaceful public protest, etc., I might have to change my mind. But refusing to pay one's taxes seems to me a futile gesture, one with possible illiberal side-effects.
Posted by: Steve Bates, Homeric epithet | Apr 17, 2007 4:45:14 PM
Afterthought: Bush clearly engages in what I call "tithing for war." A Christian friend who tithes to his church reminds me that the tithe is the first tenth, not the last one. If you estimate a war budget and decline to pay some prorated part of your taxes, but pay the rest, how likely is it that the money you do pay will go to non-war-related items? Bush will usurp whatever he can get and use it to fund his cronies' war businesses.
It's not just the illegality of tax resistance... it's the inefficacy.
Posted by: Steve Bates, Homeric epithet | Apr 17, 2007 4:58:27 PM
Steve - there are many ways to resist tyranny. Some are more practical than others, or more doable for different people. And keep in mind that war tax resistance does have 1 legal channel: living such that you don't earn enough to be taxed in the first place.
Of course there's no way for me to direct my money to specific lockboxes at the Federal level. When it's just an individual doing it, it's more symbolic than anything. Yet consider what would happen if this were part of a larger, collective effort.
Whether it's a violent revolution or a non-violent one, the actions of one person don't amount to much in themselves--it requires multiple people to engage in the resistance.
Posted by: NTodd | Apr 17, 2007 5:11:05 PM
Buy me stuff off my 
