Feb/March 2001
It
Does Pay to Fight
by Jackie Alan Guiliano
Bipartisanship
at the Expense of the Citizenry
by Howard Zinn
The
Greens Great Opportunity
by Blair Bobier
DLC
Says Gore's Presidential Bid Ruined by Populist Message: Others Disagree
by Brian Hansen
Letter
from Porto Alegre
by Norman Solomon
Doing
the Right Things, Without Making Someone Wrong
by John Darling
Globalization
From Below
by Jeremy Brecher, Tim Costello & Brendan Smith
Book
Review by Suzi Aufderheide
No Logo: Money, Marketing and the Growing Anti-Corporate Movement
by Naomi Klein
Book
Review by Gerry Cavanaugh
Hannibal
by Thomas Harris
Money
Talks
by Kayla Starr
America's
Food Safety Crisis Intensifies
by Ronnie Cummins
Coming
Home
by Jesse Wolf Hardin
The
Secret of the Valentines Angel
by Peter Melton
A
Prescription for Well-Being
by Peter Moore
Age-old
Concepts Benefit Modern Babies
by Pamela Jorrick
Cancer:
An Unexpected Way to the New Being
By Royal E. Alsup, Ph.D.
Book
Review by Kent Shew
Quantum Touch
by Richard Gordon
Cosmic
Calendar
By Salina Rain
Money Talks
By Kayla Starr
Environmental destruction isn't simply a matter of carelessness or waste. It is a deliberate sacrifice of our earth for the short-term profit of those in power. Regardless of professed ideology, governments around the world aid and enforce corporate destruction of the environment. In the U.S., the gutting of environmental regulations and enforcement goes hand in hand with enormous military expenditures. The military serves not only to protect corporate pillaging around the globe; military production and training, not to mention warfare itself, use vast amounts of resources and destroy the environment directly. The 1991 Gulf War was the single most destructive environmental event in human history; nuclear war, which the U.S. spends more to prepare for than all other countries combined, would be the ultimate environmental disaster. Restoration of the environment requires new priorities. One of many tactics in the struggle for change is refusing to pay taxes for war and military spending—and redirecting refused tax money to positive uses which WE regard as essential.
Is Tax Resistance
A Crime?
But, you may be wondering, what are the consequences of refusing to pay Federal
income tax? The IRS has most people believing that they would be thrown in
jail for such a travesty. This is absolutely not true. Intimidation can work
only until we realize we have power over the lies. The IRS only has the authority
to collect money. It can recommend criminal prosecution but does so only in
cases of serious and flagrant violation after full investigation. The IRS
does eventually collect from about 50% of tax resisters. However it costs
the them an estimated $4000 for every $1000 they collect. Some tax resisters
have never been pursued after 10 or more years of open tax resistance. Only
about twenty tax resisters have ever been jailed and in each of those cases,
there were other violations involved beyond military tax refusal. Last summer,
seven tax resisters publicly tried to turn themselves in to the IRS headquarters
in DC, to expose the myth of "go-to-jail-if-you-don’t-pay."
They were locked out of the office. The IRS simply would not see them and
wanted them to just go away quietly.
This further demonstrates that the IRS relies on massive intimidation. If many thousands stop cooperating by refusing to pay for U.S. atrocities, the government will be unable to prosecute most of us.
Here are some specific choices you can make now to become a peace and justice taxpayer instead of a war tax payer:
First, recognize that it is the responsibility of the government to serve the people and to behave morally. Second, be aware that war-making will never bring peace, serving the rich while ignoring the average citizen is immoral, and that human rights violations and destroying the environment cannot be tolerated any longer. Third, choose what degree of risk you are willing to take to follow your conscience. Levels of risk look something like this:
- Choose to live in voluntary simplicity, earning below the taxable amount, which incurs no risk at all.
- Refuse to pay the 3% federal excise tax on your phone bill. Thousands of Americans are doing this. Phone companies do not turn off your phone, they even have their computers set up to delete this amount from your next bill. This deprives the military budget of several million dollars per year. So many people are now doing this that there is no way the government can enforce payment; thus, no risk.
- Refuse to pay a percentage of your federal income tax such as the 49% that currently goes to the military, sending a letter along with your tax forms explaining why you are doing this, with a copy to your elected representatives. You risk having the IRS initiate collection procedures within 1 to 3 years. You may begin to receive letters requesting payment including interest and penalty charges. This usually goes on for several years. You may stop hearing from the IRS, or they may start threatening to seize your assets, ie: bank account, salary, and property in the amount they say you owe. You can hide your assets and/or you can decide to pay at any point in this process.
- Refuse to pay all of your federal income tax with similar risks as above. This way you can be certain that none of your money is paying for killing. There's a greater chance that collection procedures will be initiated and pursued by the IRS when more money is involved. Of course, the more people who refuse to pay, the lower the risk.
- Place the money that you have refused to send to the IRS in a special escrow account for refused military taxes such as those listed below. Your money earns interest and is combined with other refused tax monies to fund non-profit projects that serve peace, environment and human rights programs. The Seattle fund has about $350,000 of refused tax dollars invested in such projects. Your money can be withdrawn at any time if and when it is needed.
- Use the money to support projects of your own choosing, keeping records to show the IRS, to demonstrate your willingness to support positive social programs.
- Support other tax resisters with demonstrations, letters to newspapers and elected officials and financial contributions to tax resistance groups.
Many support organizations around the country for war tax resisters offer information and counseling. So when you decide to join this movement you will not be isolated. (See side-bar.)
Social change comes when many individuals act together. But before a movement develops, individuals begin to take action—even if it means acting alone. Look at our history. Henry David Thoreau spent a night in jail for refusing to pay taxes for the Mexican-American War; his essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" is part of the common heritage of the human race, reaching Tolstoy in Russia, Gandhi in India and, 100 years later, a young pastor in Alabama, Martin Luther King, Jr. The Civil Rights revolution began with one, two, or ten people defying racial barriers. It was united in purpose and action when Rosa Parks sat in the "whites only" section of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The Vietnam War protests began with a handful of people on the Berkeley campus. The women's suffrage movement started with a few brave women who marched and endured jail and hunger strikes to bring attention and support for their cause. So, if you’ve gotten discouraged with trying to change things through voting, letter writing or marching in the streets, consider joining the War Tax Resistance movement.
Kayla M. Starr has lived and worked in Southern Oregon for 13 years. She practices and teaches massage and Watsu in the Ashland area and can be reached at (541) 488-3495; kayla@mind.net
RESOURCES:
War Resisters League, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012
(212) 228-0450; fax (212) 228-6193; wrl@igc.org; www.warresisters.orgj
National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC)
PO Box 6512, Ithica, NY 14851
(800) 269-7464 nwtrcc@lightlink.com; www.nwtrcc.org
Center for Defense Information
1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 332-0600; Fax (202)462-4559; www.cdi.org
Peace House
PO Box 524
Ashland, OR 97520
(541) 482-9625
Alternative Funds or Community Peace Fund
(503) 796-3924
N. California War Tax Resistance and People's Life Fund
PO Box 2422, Berkeley, CA 94702
(510) 843-9877
Conscience and Military Tax Escrow Account
4554 12th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
(206) 720-0952
