War Tax Resistance Made Simple

According to the government's Unified Budget for 2003, a measly 17 percent of the federal budget is earmarked for the military, while over three times as much is spent on Social Security and Medicare. What a great government, right? When you look at the actual budget, however (that which comes from taxes, minus Social Security funds), we're spending nearly half of our budget, about $775 billion, on past and present military expenses.

These figures are about two months old, and they're probably already seriously out of whack, especially if you consider the $80 billion just granted to Bush for his war. Regardless of the specifics, the basic truth is about half of your income tax is going to the military. For all the millions of people who've taken to the streets in the past four months to prevent or oppose this war, this is like a kidney punch from behind: You may spend your days, nights and/or weekends working to preserve peace, but everyone who pays taxes is financially helping to support the war.

The obvious solution to this quandary is to just stop paying your taxes, right? So if it's that simple, why aren't the lines in the post office that much shorter on April 15?

The reality is quite complex, though considerably less fearful than most assume. Not paying taxes as a form of conscientious objection is much more common than is publicly known. While not difficult, it requires a level of commitment that may seem daunting to many. The beauty of this form of war resistance is that it is endlessly flexible, and there are people who have been able to maintain this protest for as long as they've been in control of their income.

The Daily Protest

In early March, before the war started, I attended a War Tax Resisters support and information meeting at a small Unitarian church in tree-lined Berkeley. About 25 people came together to learn some of the details of this movement and to share their hopes, fears and experiences.

As one attendee put it, "Not paying taxes is a way you can protest every day," as opposed to marching once a month to protest. Susan Quinlan, a Bay Area organizer for the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC), gave me a brief rundown of her 20-year experiences with war tax resistance -- including the time IRS agents came to her door "requesting" an appearance in their office, and the time she quit her job in order to prevent the government from deducting money from her wages.

This is not to scare potential tax resisters, merely to underscore the level of commitment necessary to ride the peaks and troughs of this form of civil disobedience. One immediate lesson to learn is that there will be peaks and troughs, but that the troughs are not as deep as commonly feared: Quinlan pegs the number of war tax resisters who have seriously faced jail time at less than 20 over the past 50 years.

People who are outraged by the war and are looking for serious ways to get involved with the resistance find tax resistance a powerful tool. If even one percent of the people who participated in anti-war protests this year sent a protest letter in lieu of a check to the IRS, we would see some political heads snap to attention. What follows is a beginner's guide to tax resistance, followed by a brief discussion of other, less illegal, ways to make your point.

Screw the IRS: A Step-By-Step Primer

Tax resistance begins by controlling your income. This means one of two things -- getting paid under the table or, for most of us, managing your income withholding. Strictly speaking, the allowances you claim on your W-4 form are used to increase the amount of money you can take home to care for dependents, or can be used to offset some refund you know you'll be getting come tax time. Because you don't have to identify your dependents on your W-4, and your employer can't ask you about the reasons behind your allowances, tax resisters can use these allowances to decrease the taxes they're paying.