Anti-War Fruits Refuse To Pay Taxes

I disagree with their stance on the issue, but the idea that you can refuse to pay taxes to a government that will use your money on programs you don't support is intriguing.

AP:

When the United States invaded Iraq more than four years ago, war opponent David Gross asked his bosses for a radical pay cut, enough so he wouldn't have to pay taxes to support the war.

"I was having a hard time looking at myself in the mirror," Gross said. "I knew the bombs falling were in part paid with my tax dollars. I had to actually do something concrete to remove my complicity."

The San Francisco technical writer was making close to $100,000 a year. He didn't know exactly how big of a pay cut he would need to fall below the federal tax threshold, but later figured out he would have to make less than minimum wage.

In any event, his employer turned him down and he quit. Gross, 38, now works on a contract basis, and last year he refused to pay self-employment taxes.

They even have an organization whose goal is to fight for people's right to refuse to pay taxes.

"Clearly this year we definitely had more people calling, sending e-mails about how they decided to start resisting," said Ruth Benn, coordinator of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee in New York.

Based on the committee's mailing list and reports from numerous groups it works with around the country, Benn estimates 8,000 to 10,000 Americans refuse to pay some or all of their federal taxes over war objections. Internal Revenue Service officials say they don't have figures for that specific category, but earlier this year reported an overall noncompliance rate of 16.3 percent and estimated the annual tax gap at about $345 billion.

Now you all know who has to pick up the slack for the millions of dollars these idiots refuse to pay in violation of the Constitution. Yep, we do.

War protesters have been pushing for a law called the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund that would allow designated conscientious objectors to have their income, estate, or gift taxes used for nonmilitary purposes. After years of efforts, they hope a Congressional hearing will be held on the proposal next year.

Hmmmm ... very interesting. Try to imagine having the power to force the government to NOT FUND programs you don't support. The wheels are spinning in the wheelhouse on this.

If you go to the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's website, they have a statement about their goals.

We oppose militarism and war and refuse to complicitly participate in the tax system which supports such violence. NWTRCC sees poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, economic exploitation, environmental destruction and militarization of law enforcement as integrally linked with the militarism which we abhor.

Ok, so they are a bunch of pacifist peaceniks, but they do propose an interesting argument. They feel they are being taxed without representation, and to an extent they are right.

We all know the nation will not be able to function if tax exemptions are made for people who don't support certain programs. We all don't support a program the government forces you to pay for. If they are able to succeed in getting the government to only use their taxes for non-war purposes then we need to mobilize quickly for our goals.

For instance, I don't believe my taxes should be used for welfare, meaningless scientific research, benefits for illegals, pay raises for Congress, health care, salaries for the IRS, government subsidies, certain foreign aid, the UN, or anything having to do with global warming (like the millions of dollars that will be given to farmers for allowing our government to "catch" methane produced by cow crap). Not to mention that I sure as hell don't feel I should be paying the government taxes on gasoline.

You just know that many, if not all, of these anti-war tax people support global warming research. Now that Congress has made a move to force the Pentagon to study global warming ... will they still withhold their taxes from the Pentagon? Thereby removing funding for the Pentagon's global warming research.