Washington: Tax resistance is nothing new in the US. The long American tradition reaches back to when revolutionaries tossed tea into Boston Harbour.
Taking a cue from the age-old tradition, an estimated 10,000 Americans, who are against US' invasion and occupation of Iraq, have abruptly refused to pay their income taxes saying that they “don’t want their money to be used for killing people and launching wars”.
Instead, they plan to donate their tax obligation to charity, the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) reported.
The US’ Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which collects different kinds of taxes in the country, and courts have dubbed the act as “illegal”. The decision of the taxpayers is being described as an act of civil disobedience.
Jim Allen, a retired Army social worker now teaching at St. Louis University, became fed up after learning that billions of dollars (out of tax money) were spent to fund the war in Iraq, and decided to take a moral stand. “I am not opposed to paying taxes, but I am when such a large percent is going to pay for war,” said Allen, who served in the Army for 20 years.
Contradicting the White House’s claim that 19 cents of every dollar goes to military spending, Allen said the number is closer to 42 percent, so he and his wife “withheld about 1300 dollars this year”.
“I see the military getting more and more funding while education and healthcare get less and less. As Roman Catholics, my wife and I know that is wrong and immoral," He added.
Similarly, Ruth Benn of Brooklyn filed her Income Tax Return this week, but sans the tax amount. “In good conscience I cannot pay this money to the US government. I do not want my tax dollars to be used for killing and war,” the paper quoted Ms Benn as saying in the letter to the IRS appended along with her unpaid income tax return.
The Internal Revenue Service does not keep a count of tax resisters, but they're no doubt a tiny fraction of the 120 million people expected to file to Uncle Sam. Though her evidence is anecdotal, Benn sees their ranks growing, noting that three years into the Iraq war her tax-resister clearinghouse has more than doubled its online readership, from 200 hits a day to about 500.
Reacting to the development, an IRS spokesman Robert Marvin said that the decision of the taxpayers to withhold their taxes was illegal. “Of course, not paying taxes is against the law,” he added.
The courts of law have also come down heavily on such tax resisters. Only last July, a district judge had sentenced three members of the Restored Israel of Yahweh church, which preaches against war taxes, to six months in prison for tax evasion and openly allowing employees of their New Jersey construction company to avoid their income taxes.
But, according an attorney, the law of the land is generally not so harsh on tax resisters. “On rare occasions, if a person has owed a lot of money over a lot of time, the IRS may go after them. But criminal prosecution is rare to the point that it is almost not heard of,” attorney Peter Goldberger, who is handling the appeal for two of the Restored Israel of Yahweh worshipers, reportedly said.
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