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A tax resister is a person who resists or refuses payment of a tax because they oppose the action or actions of the institution collecting the tax. Often tax resistance comes from pacifist or religious groups, such as the Quakers, who choose not to fund violent government activities. A tax is an involuntary fee paid by individuals or businesses to a state, or to functional equivalents of a state, including tribes, secessionist movements or revolutionary movements. ...
The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, or Friends, is a religious community founded in England in the 17th century. ...
Unlike a tax protester who denies that the legal obligation to pay taxes exists or applies, tax resisters typically recognize that the law obliges them to pay taxes, but choose to defy this law by refusing to pay. A person can be both a tax protester and a tax resister if they believe that tax laws do not apply to them, and also believe that taxes should not be paid because of the use to which they are put. In United States tax law enforcement, a tax protester (sometimes spelled protestor) is a person who resists or refuses payment of a tax for which he or she is liable based on a belief that the tax laws are inapplicable or unconstitutional. ...
History of tax resistance
Tax resistance has probably existed in some form for as long as those in a position of power have assessed taxes on people.
John Hampden was imprisoned for his opposition to the loan King Charles I authorised without parliamentary sanction, and he also refused to pay ship money to the Royal Navy. The attempts to imprison resisters like Hampden led to the English Civil War. John Hampden as depicted in the 1851 Illustrated London Reading Book John Hampden (circa 1595—1643) was an English politician, the eldest son of William Hampden, of Hampden House, Great Hampden in Buckinghamshire, a descendant of a very ancient family of that county, said to have been established there before...
Charles I King of England, Scotland and Ireland Charles I (19 November 1600–30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625, until his death. ...
Ship money was a tax, the levy of which by Charles I of England without the consent of Parliament was one of the causes of the English Civil War. ...
The term English Civil War (or Wars) refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, specifically to the first (1642–1645) and to second (1648–1649) (civil wars between the supporters of King Charles I and the...
Perhaps the most famous American example of a tax resister, author Henry David Thoreau, was briefly jailed in 1846 for refusing to pay taxes in protest against the Fugitive Slave Act and the Mexican-American War. He identified war tax resistance as the logical civilian counterpart to conscientious objection in the military, and said that anti-war activists who praise conscientious objectors but who continue to pay their taxes are in an analogous hypocritical bind as that of the "chickenhawks" in the pro-war camp: Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862; born David Henry Thoreau) was a noted American author and philosopher who is most famous for Walden, his essay on civil disobedience, and appreciation for nature. ...
1846 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...
The Fugitive Slave Law of the United States may refer to one of two laws of the same name: Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
The Mexican-American War was a war fought between the United States and Mexico between 1846 and 1848. ...
A conscientious objector is an individual whose personal beliefs are incompatible with military service, or sometimes with any role in the armed forces. ...
Chickenhawk is an epithet used in United States politics to criticize a politician, bureaucrat, or commentator who votes for war, supports war, commands a war, or develops war policy, but has not personally served in the military, especially one who opted out of a previous war on dubious grounds. ...
- I have heard some of my townsmen say, "I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico, — see if I would go;" and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war...
The British women's suffrage movement used tax resistance in their struggle, and explicitly saw themselves in a tradition of tax resistance that included John Hampden. According to one source, "tax resistance proved to be the longest-lived form of militancy, and the most difficult to prosecute. More than 220 women, mostly middle-class, participated in tax resistance between 1906 and 1918, some continuing to resist through the First World War, despite a general suspension of militancy." The international movement for womens suffrage, led by suffragists (commonly called suffragettes), was a social, economic and political reform movement aimed at extending the suffrage (that is, the right to vote) to women, advocating equal suffrage (abolition of graded votes) rather than universal suffrage (abolition of discrimination due to...
John Hampden as depicted in the 1851 Illustrated London Reading Book John Hampden (circa 1595—1643) was an English politician, the eldest son of William Hampden, of Hampden House, Great Hampden in Buckinghamshire, a descendant of a very ancient family of that county, said to have been established there before...
1906 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
Mohandas Gandhi's independence campaign in India used a variety of tax resistance strategies, attacking the British taxed monopolies on salt and textiles by advocating the illegal production of salt outside of the monopoly system and the home-based spinning of cloth. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी), called Mahatma Gandhi, was the charismatic leader who brought the cause of Indias independence from British colonial rule to world attention. ...
This article is about economic monopoly. ...
In chemistry, salt is a general term used for ionic compounds composed of positively charged cations and negatively charged anions, so that the product is neutral and without a net charge. ...
This article is about the type of fabric. ...
In 1948, a Chicago Peacemakers Movement conference on "More Disciplined and Revolutionary Pacifist Activity" attracted more than 300 people, and resulted in the formation of a "Tax Refusal Committee." 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ...
In 1965 the United States Congress allowed the Amish to be exempt from the Social Security tax, after a persistent campaign from some Amish who regarded insurance programs as mistrustful of God and therefore against their religious teachings. 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ...
The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States of America. ...
The Amish are a denomination of Anabaptists related to the Mennonites noted for their resticted use of modern devices such as automobiles and electricity. ...
For specific national programs, see Social Security (United States), National insurance (UK), Social Security (Sweden) Social security mainly refers to a field of social welfare concerned with social protection, or protection against socially recognized needs, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment, families with children and others. ...
The term God (capitalized in English language as a proper noun) is often used to refer vaguely to a Supreme Being. ...
Beginning in 1972 United States Congressman Ronald Dellums introduced legislation that would allow taxpayers to claim a conscientious objector status and designate their taxes for non-military spending only; this legislation is still periodically introduced in the United States Congress and has a number of sponsors, and the legislatures of other countries are also considering such legislation, but some tax resisters feel that such a law does not actually address the essential dilemma that leads them to resist taxation. 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ...
Ronald Vernie Dellums (born November 24, 1935), U.S. Democratic Party politician, was a U.S. Representative from California from 1971 until 1999. ...
A conscientious objector is an individual whose personal beliefs are incompatible with military service, perhaps with any role in the armed forces or just with a particular war. ...
In 1988, the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour engaged in a large-scale campaign of resisting the taxes being collected by Israel's occupation forces. 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Beit Sahour is a town in the West Bank, situated to the east of Bethlehem. ...
Recent Developments More recently, some foes of abortion and/or capital punishment have become tax resisters, refusing to pay taxes that are going to support those practices. In the United States, some gay people have adopted a form of tax resistance to protest the government's lack of legal recognition of gay marriage. Death Penalty World Map Color Key: Blue: Abolished for all crimes Yellow: Abolished for crimes not committed in exceptional circumstances (such as crimes committed in time of war) Orange: Abolitionist in Practice Red: Legal Form of Punishment Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the judicially ordered...
Motives Tax resisters are typically motivated by a disagreement with the policies of the government or institution that is collecting the tax. For some, this may include an opposition to that government or institution entirely, without respect to its specific policies (for instance, Gandhi's opposition to British Imperial rule). Anarchists who resist taxes oppose anybody or any institution that demands tribute. Christian anarchists resist taxes from any government that funds a civil defence force or military. Some radical democrats suggest that a right to deny tax payments is in the spirit of democracy, giving people a veto right and forcing government spending to be done with the consent of the governed. Christian anarchism is the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable, the authority of God as embodied in the teachings of Jesus. ...
The word veto comes from Latin and literally means I forbid. ...
What a tax resister hopes to accomplish through his or her resistance may be personal or political or some combination of the two:
- Many tax resisters are motivated by the desire to "wash their hands" of complicity in immoral government policies by not contributing to the funding for them.
- Some tax resisters see their resistance as a form of protest, designed to communicate the strength of their opposition through an act of civil disobedience.
- Others see tax resistance as an act of nonviolent political force – cutting off the funds of the government as part of a campaign to force concessions from that government or to cause it to relinquish control.
Hand washing is the act of cleansing the hands with water or other liquid, with or without the use of soap or other detergents, for the purpose of removing soil or microorganisms. ...
Civil disobedience encompasses the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government or of an occupying power without resorting to physical violence. ...
Methods There are many methods of tax resistance. In war tax resistance circles in the United States it is sometimes remarked that there are as many ways to practice tax resistance as there are resisters.
Refusing to pay The most dramatic and characteristic of these methods is to refuse to pay a tax. This may be done by simply ignoring the tax bill due, or by ostentatiously declaring the intent not to pay.
Some tax resisters refuse to pay only a portion of the taxes due. For instance, some war tax resisters refuse to pay only a percentage of what the government claims they owe - that percentage being equivalent to the military percentage of the government's budget.
Other resisters withhold a symbolic amount - for instance, in the United States, some might hold back $17.76 (symbolic of the revolutionary year 1776) or $10.40 (in tribute to the "1040 form" that people use when filing their federal income tax returns). This article is about the year 1776. ...
Refusing specific taxes Some resisters only resist particular taxes, either because those taxes are especially noxious to them, or because they present a useful symbolic target, or because they are more easily resisted.
In the United States, many war tax resisters resist the federal excise tax on their phone bills. Because this tax is typically small, this is a symbolic resistance and very rarely triggers significant government retaliation. Because of this, it is a form of resistance that is popular for its relative safety. The phone tax was initiated to pay for the Spanish-American War (although these days it is just one more tax going to the general fund), so it is an attractive target as a "war tax." The Spanish-American War took place in 1898, and resulted in the United States of America gaining control over the former colonies of Spain in the Caribbean and Pacific. ...
Redirection Some tax resisters refuse to pay all or a portion of the taxes due, and then make an equivalent donation to charity. In this way, they show that the intent of their resistance is not selfish and that they want to use a portion of their earnings to contribute to the common good.
Paying under protest Some taxpayers pay their taxes, but include protest letters along with their tax forms. Others pay in a protesting form (for instance, by writing their check on a toilet seat or a mock-up of a missile), or in a way that creates inconvenience for the collector (for instance, by paying the entire amount in low-denomination coins).
Legally lowering the due tax Other tax resisters change their lives and lifestyles so that they owe less tax. For instance, to avoid income tax, a resister might take in less income; to avoid an excise tax on alcohol, the resister might home-brew beer; to avoid excise taxes on gasoline, the resister might take up bicycling; and so forth.
Some have suggested the term "tax avoision" for this method. It differs from tax evasion in that the goal is to pay as little as possible (as opposed to a goal of holding on to as much as possible), and it differs from tax resistance in that it is not particularly resistant (it plays by the rules of the tax laws). This article contrasts tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax resistance and tax mitigation. ...
Tax avoidance A resister may try to lower the tax due through legal tax avoidance techniques. For instance, one way to avoid tax is to establish an independent entity in a tax haven to shelter an individual's income and assets along with an offshore bank account to control the entity's funds. Examples of such entities include an offshore company or corporation (such as an International Business Corporation or IBC), a foundation (such as a Panama Private Interest Foundation) or a trust. This article contrasts tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax mitigation. ...
A tax haven is a place where certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all. ...
An offshore bank is a bank located outside the country of residence of the depositor, typically in a low tax jurisdiction that provides financial and legal advantages. ...
An offshore company is one which does not conduct substantial business in its country of incorporation. ...
A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name AS (anonymous society) or something similar, depending on language (see below). ...
A Foundation is a kind of philanthropic organization, set up by either individuals or institutions as a legal entity (usually either a corporation or a trust) with the purpose of distributing grants to support causes in line with the goals of the foundation. ...
In common law legal systems, a trust is a relationship in which a person or entity (the trustee) has legal control over certain property (the trust property or trust corpus), but is bound by fiduciary duty to exercise that legal control for the benefit of someone else (the beneficiary), according...
Tax evasion A resister may also try to lower the tax due through illegal tax evasion techniques. For instance, one way to avoid the income tax is to participate in the underground economy - earning money that is never declared to the government. This article contrasts tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax resistance and tax mitigation. ...
The underground economy consists of all trade that occurs without government permission or effectual intervention (in the form of taxation or price regulation). ...
Arguments against tax resistance Many arguments can be made against the tactic of tax resistance. Most basic, of course, is from those who support the entity collecting the tax and feel that other people should as well. But even those who are sympathetic with the tax resister's complaints may question the methods. Some common arguments against tax resistance are: - What if everybody only paid for the parts of government they like? Wouldn't that create weird and awful imbalances in what the government funds? Only by ceding this appropriations power to some government can you get a rational result, but that means living with spending your taxes on things you might not like.
- If you don't pay your taxes, the government will just have to take the money from someone else, which is unfair to them.
- If you don't pay your taxes, you become a free rider - getting government services like police protection and so forth without paying your share of the bill.
- Tax resistance is too passive and ineffective a way to gain political change.
- Won't the government respond to tax resisters by assessing fines, interest, and/or penalties against them? And won't this just mean they end up with more money in the end?
In the analyses of economics and political science, free riders are actors who take more than their fair share of the benefits or do not shoulder their fair share of the costs of their use of a resource, involvement in a project, etc. ...
Tax Resisters of Note Joan Baezs 1975 bestseller Diamonds & Rust. ...
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ...
For Arthur Evans, the recipient of the Victoria Cross, see Arthur Evans (VC) Sir Arthur John Evans (July 8, 1851 – July 11, 1941) was an English archaeologist. ...
Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Ferlinghetti (born March 24, 1919) is a poet who is best known as the co-owner of the City Lights Bookstore and publishing house, which published early literary works of the Beat Generation, including Jack Kerouac, Kenneth Rexroth and Allen Ginsberg. ...
John Fries Rebellion, also called the House Tax Rebellion, the Home Tax Rebellion or the Hot-Water Rebellion (Blitz Wasser in Pennsylvania Dutch because hot water was used to drive tax assessors from houses), was an armed tax revolt led by a Pennsylvania farmer in 1799 and 1800. ...
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी), called Mahatma Gandhi, was the charismatic leader who brought the cause of Indias independence from British colonial rule to world attention. ...
Allen Ginsberg in San Francisco. ...
John Hampden as depicted in the 1851 Illustrated London Reading Book John Hampden (circa 1595—1643) was an English politician, the eldest son of William Hampden, of Hampden House, Great Hampden in Buckinghamshire, a descendant of a very ancient family of that county, said to have been established there before...
Robin Harper is a Member of the Scottish Parliament, representing the Scottish Green Party for the Lothians. ...
Ammon Hennacy (July 24, 1893 - January 14, 1970) was a pacifist Christian anarchist, social activist, member of the Catholic Worker Movement and was known for establishing the Joe Hill House of Hospitality in Salt Lake City, Utah and never paying taxes. ...
His Excellency Raymond Gerhardt Hunthausen (born August 21, 1921) was the archbishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Seattle, serving from February 25, 1975 to August 21, 1991. ...
Rose Wilder Lane (December 5, 1886–October 30, 1968) was an American writer and the daughter of author Laura Ingalls Wilder. ...
Abraham Johannes Muste (January 8, 1885_February 11, 1967) was a socialist active in the labor movement and the US civil rights movement. ...
This biographical article needs to be wikified. ...
American civil rights activist and tax resister Wally Nelson died in 2002 at the age of 93 after more than a half-century of tax resistance and activism. ...
Pete Seeger, 1944 Peter Seeger (born May 3, 1919 in New York City), almost always known as Pete Seeger, is a folk singer and political activist. ...
Gloria Steinem. ...
Albert Szent-Györgyi (September 16, 1893 _ October 22, 1986) was a Hungarian physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. ...
Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862; born David Henry Thoreau) was a noted American author and philosopher who is most famous for Walden, his essay on civil disobedience, and appreciation for nature. ...
Lev Tolstoy, pictured late in life Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy listen? (Russian: Лев ÐиколаÌевич ТолÑтоÌй; commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy) (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910; August 28, 1828 – November 7, 1910, O.S.) was a Russian novelist, reformer, pacifist Christian and moral thinker. ...
Leo J. Volpe (1916–2000) was an American religious leader and conscientious objector. ...
Edmund Wilson (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer, noted chiefly for his literary criticism. ...
Quotes "If only each King, Emperor, and President understood that his work of directing armies is not an honourable and important duty, as his flatterers persuade him it is, but a bad and shameful act of preparation for murder — and if each private individual understood that the payment of taxes wherewith to hire and equip soldiers, and, above all, army-service itself, are not matters of indifference, but are bad and shameful actions by which he not only permits but participates in murder — then this power of Emperors, Kings, and Presidents, which now arouses our indignation, and which causes them to be murdered, would disappear of itself." - Leo Tolstoy Lev Tolstoy, pictured late in life Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy listen? (Russian: Лев ÐиколаÌевич ТолÑтоÌй; commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy) (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910; August 28, 1828 – November 7, 1910, O.S.) was a Russian novelist, reformer, pacifist Christian and moral thinker. ...
"Withholding payment of taxes is one of the quickest methods of overthrowing a government." - Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी), called Mahatma Gandhi, was the charismatic leader who brought the cause of Indias independence from British colonial rule to world attention. ...
"He or she who supports a State organized in the military way – whether directly or indirectly – participates in the sin. Each man old or young takes part in the sin by contributing to the maintenance of the State by paying taxes." - Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी), called Mahatma Gandhi, was the charismatic leader who brought the cause of Indias independence from British colonial rule to world attention. ...
"See what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say, 'I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico, — see if I would go;' and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war..." - Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862; born David Henry Thoreau) was a noted American author and philosopher who is most famous for Walden, his essay on civil disobedience, and appreciation for nature. ...
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