Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 6. Mars 2005
/ Time Line March 6, 2005
Version 3.5
5. Mars 2005, 7. Mars 2005
03/06/2005
50¢ of Every Tax Dollar Goes to Pay for Wars; Large Numbers
of Americans Refusing to Pony Up
By John Tiffany
Increasing numbers of Americans say the U.S. government is involved
in immoral and illegal wars around the world and are refusing to
support this with their tax money. The invasion and occupation of
Iraq and Afghanistan and the indiscriminate killing of civilians,
for example, are outlawed by international law.
“Of every tax dollar paid, more than 50 cents goes to pay for
past, present and future military expenses. The military budget for
the Department of Defense alone for 2005 will be close to $500
billion. Our payment of federal taxes enables the government to
carry on a continuing program of illegal military
activities,” wrote Glen Milner, a member of Ground Zero
Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Wash., in a recent opinion
piece in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
“International laws and agreements support and encourage
citizens to resist their government when it is engaged in illegal
acts,” Milner added.
Under international laws, those who facilitate illegal wars and war
crimes could actually be morally—if not
legally—accountable, say proponents of resisting war taxes.
Principle IV of the Nuremberg Principles states: “The fact
that a person acted pursuant to order of his government or of a
superior does not relieve him from responsibility under
international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to
him.”
For example, a 1996 ruling by the International Court of Justice
regarding the threat or use of nuclear weapons could be interpreted
to mean that the United States’ deployment of depleted
uranium weapons is illegal. The humanitarian measure prohibits the
use of weapons or methods of warfare that are directed against
civilians or cannot discriminate between military targets and
civilians; cause unnecessary suffering to combatants; violate the
territory of neutral states; cause long-term and widespread damage
to the environment or use poisonous substances.
Most war tax resisters redirect their withheld federal tax funds to
outfits such as the Conscience and Military Tax Campaign Escrow
Account in Seattle. This way, the money is still on hand, if they
should ever be forced to fork it over. Though getting a notice from
the Internal Revenue Service is likely, jail is uncommon for war
tax resisters. Still, there are no guarantees.
IRS public affairs officer Ken Vargas of the Austin, Texas, office
of the IRS explains the collections office sends out “soft
notices” first, followed by “harder notices”
later. Vargas says the IRS doesn’t keep a handy record of war
tax resisters. He insists “normal collection
procedures” apply to all subjects, regardless of whether they
write letters stating their war tax resistance. In fact, the tax
reform act of 1998 makes it illegal for the IRS to designate tax
protesters as a special class.
Susan Quinlan, a Bay Area organizer for the National War Tax
Resistance Coordinating Committee, pegs the number of war tax
resisters who have seriously faced jail time at less than 20 over
the past 50 years. It doesn’t necessarily have to be your
income tax that you use for protesting, either.
One of the first federal taxes to spark opposition was the federal
phone tax. This tax has been in existence since 1914. Originally
introduced as a “temporary” tax, after 76 years
Congress made it permanent and set its level at 3 percent of your
phone bill. Protesters simply include a note saying that they
refuse to pay their federal excise tax for conscientious purposes
and pay the rest.
Resistance to the telephone tax has a long and distinguished
history, and most phone companies will put up no fight to customers
who will not pay it. Perhaps they’re just as happy not to
serve as unpaid tax collectors for the feds.
In any event, tax resister groups estimate that tens of thousands
of Americans don’t pay their income taxes in order to protest
U.S.-backed war efforts around the world. And, they say, that
number is growing every year.
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03/06/2005
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