By guest author Erica Weiland
[note from KMM: One of the objectives of the Engaging Peace blog is to encourage activism in support of peace and in opposition to war. We strive to educate our readers about different approaches to activism. Today we offer a timely perspective from Erica Weiland, a guest author representing the National War Tax Coordinating Committee.]
Photo by Ed Hedemann, provided by the author.
Year after year, the US government spends money disproportionately for war. Different organizations calculate military expenditure differently, but whether the figure is 27%, 40%, 45%, or 57%, a large chunk of your income tax dollars supports payments for current and past wars and treatment for veterans.
If you’ve ever marched in the street, written letters to Congress, organized civil disobedience actions, prayed for peace, donated to an anti-war organization, or complained about this country’s spending, you know something about putting your time, effort, and money into a movement struggling against war. Another tactic some Americans (and people elsewhere) have adopted is to withdraw their financial support from the government that perpetrates wars.
Methods of war tax resistance can be legal or illegal, on a wide spectrum of risk, with a variety of potential consequences.
Resisters can, for example:
*legally refuse to pay taxes by lowering their taxable income,
*commit an act of civil disobedience by refusing to pay some or all of the taxes owed to the IRS,
*refuse to pay the federal excise tax on local telephone service, which is historically a war tax.
People all over the United States, earning different incomes and in different family and life situations, practice war tax resistance.
Their motivations vary. Some resist
*for reasons of conscience,
*in hopes of growing a movement of war tax resisters to reduce or stop war spending,
*to create a legal precedent for “peace taxes” that can’t be spent for war.
The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee is the only national organization devoted to supporting and informing current and potential war tax resisters, helping people get all the information they need to make decisions about resisting war taxes. If you are tired of supporting the war machine with your tax dollars, check them out.
Erica Weiland is the social media consultant for the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.