A reader writes in
Feel free to reprint:
Why I am refusing to pay my income tax

As April 15, 2004 approaches I have decided to file a 1040 tax return
but to withhold sending the IRS any money for taxes I may owe. This
decision was not made hastily or without a lot of thought. Over the
years, and especially the last two years, I was spared having to make
this decision because I did not owe anything due to weak earnings and
significant expenses. The year 2003 was profitable however and I have
determined that I will incur a tax liability.

I have investigated the history and ethics, the legalities and the
options of War Tax resistance and have weighed the consequences of my
actions according to my conscience and morals. The illegality of the
invasion and occupation of Iraq last year, the direct support of
Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians, the passage of the so-called
Patriot Act and many other instances of corrupt and immoral activity
conducted by the U. S. Government openly or covertly under the present
Republican administration directly threatens our American system of
democracy and its commonwealth, including the domestic economy and the
environment. This has caused me to conclude that to pay my income taxes
would be an act condoning this state-sponsored corruption and their
criminal, genocidal (and ultimately suicidal) policies. In short the
penalties and stigma I may be assessed as a result of not paying my
income tax is not a strong enough disincentive, compared to the strong
feeling and moral conviction I hold as a patriotic American, Christian,
human being and planetary citizen to stand against and resist the
further destruction of all that I hold sacred. My protest is neither
violent nor harmful to any other being and is in accordance with the
beliefs and principles expressed by Henry David Thoreau, Thomas
Jefferson, the Nuremburg Trials, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration
of Independence.

Payment of income tax is voluntary - that is what I was taught. I am a
free, individual citizen who still believes that those in public office
must be held accountable to protect the public trust, instead of
looting the treasury by spending billions of taxpayers dollars on a
personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein, or to enrich political
friends in certain corporations, many of whom have created off-shore
accounts to greedily avoid paying their fair share. I am disgusted by
this continued worsening scenario of creeping fascism and
totalitarianism that is taking place in the federal government, which
increasingly encroaches upon individual privacy, criminalizes and
incarcerates more and more people of color, militarizes every aspect of
society, empowers transnational corporations at the expense of working
people, the environment and consumers, instigates coup d’etats in
foreign countries, disregards international law, and stifles homegrown
dissent through a widening police state.

I’d have to be stupid or blind to continue to support this
dysfunctional and unsustainable system with my tax dollars! Therefore,
I refuse to pay any future income taxes I may owe until the present
Administration changes its policies or is defeated and replaced by one
that reverses the present corrupt and suicidal course this Nation is
perilously following.

I know this may “get me in trouble”. But this country is in trouble, in
case you haven’t noticed. And there is only one way out. The truth.

Long live the American Revolution.

In solidarity with all those suffering as a result of U.S. imperialism,



Christopher Toussaint
Santa Monica, California


cc: IRS, Cong. Henry Waxman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. Diane Feinstein