How many people refuse to pay taxes

Lincoln Rice of NWTRCC estimates 10, to 20, people are currently resisting war taxes, but says the number is hard to determine and breaking it down demographically is impossible due to the lack of information on resisters.

Sam Yergler, who is 34 years old and has been resisting since , says fear is one major reason young people are not refusing to pay their taxes in larger numbers. On its website, the NWTRCC points out there are numerous opportunities to essentially bail out of resistance by paying up, and there are many steps taken by the IRS before anything as serious as arrest is considered. In most ways this form of resistance is just like other more familiar resistance methods.

For example, people risking arrest during a sit-in typically are warned at least once that arrest is imminent, and they can choose to leave instead. The risks also depend on the tactic chosen. Maynard, who lives below the taxable income level, recommends individuals considering resistance educate themselves on the different methods by talking to people who have done it and finding out their motivations and best practices. Tax resistance may seem like a solitary and private action, but with a community network it can begin to feel akin to other types of resistance, like marches, and other movements where collective action and relationship building is the norm.

The support that community can offer may be particularly important to millennial resisters, because of the relative lack of public discussion on the method during their lifetimes and the rise of student debt. While some, like Hersh, grew up in Quaker communities where the concept was known, discussion of war tax resistance tends to be relegated to history books covering the Vietnam War and focused on the experiences of older generations.

One year-old tax resister, who did not want to give her name, believes her tax resistance is a practice shaped over time and that it takes tenacity and a certain amount of financial literacy that may be difficult to muster for some people. Many younger people may be just too overwhelmed by debt to consider the idea of tax resistance as an on-going practice.

But Hersh also sees benefits to beginning resistance at a young age. Another frequently mentioned roadblock for millennials considering resistance or already practicing it is healthcare. Since not every state chose to expand access to Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, resisters attempting to live below the taxable income level may find they do not qualify for free health insurance.

Some states require applicants to have both a low income and to meet other qualifications, like having a disability. People who choose not to file taxes are presented with the conundrum of providing proof of income when applying for health insurance in federal or state marketplaces.

If they receive insurance through those marketplaces then that information will be reported to the IRS at the end of the year. It is unclear yet what impact these new systems will have on non-filers. Despite the challenges, resistance to paying for war continues to strike a chord.

Hersh has spent time with Christian Peacemakers Teams as they acted in solidarity with people directly impacted by the U. Time and again resisting millennials speak of the connectedness between issues and how integrating tax resistance into their justice work makes practical sense. Indeed their resistance often allows them to pursue other justice work more wholeheartedly. Millennials practicing war tax resistance express a need to be conscious of their role in existing systems and how their interaction with those systems creates a more or less just world.

Helping people manage those compromises and learn how to limit their involvement with the financing of war is the work of NWTRCC. Its website includes the history of war tax resistance, the reasoning behind it, practical pamphlets on how to use the tactic, and information on people and organizations that can help individuals at all steps of the process. In they ran an intensive web-based focus group with activists under 30 years old who were not familiar with tax resistance to learn more about what motivates them to join movements.

NWTRCC plans to host another round of focus groups in before rolling out an outreach plan geared towards younger activists and people of color.

Clearly for many resisters this is a practice that enriches their lives. Lindsey Britt is a non-profit administrator, traveler, and amateur ethicist whose activist work is focused in the climate justice and animal rights movements.

The bottom 5 percent earned The Joint Committee on Taxation found that when including refundable tax credits, the bottom 50 percent of earners actually faced a negative 2 percent effective tax rate for the federal income tax. But there are facts, which are objective, and the facts suggest that the U. These facts should be kept in mind when considering tax increases and expansions in tax credits in the budget reconciliation process.

The Tax Foundation works hard to provide insightful tax policy analysis. Our work depends on support from members of the public like you. Would you consider contributing to our work? We work hard to make our analysis as useful as possible. Would you consider telling us more about how we can do better? A refundable tax credit can be used to generate a federal tax refund larger than the amount of tax paid throughout the year. In other words, a refundable tax credit creates the possibility of a negative federal tax liability.

It will contribute to the destruction of the environment and maybe more nuclear weapons. Newman, 48, regrets that his taxes have already been automatically taken out of his paycheck. He intends to write to the government accusing the Trump administration of a planned misuse of those public funds. Then he will change his arrangements so that he will get a bill from the Internal Revenue Service, instead, and will refuse to pay it, donating the money to causes he deems more socially responsible.

He will be following the example of one of his heroes, Henry David Thoreau, who refused to pay tax that would fund wars and slavery and was jailed for it in , and whose famous essay , Civil Disobedience, Newman often reads to his students. He is far more likely simply to be fined and charged interest on the unpaid taxes by the IRS. The committee was created in , around the time Benn stopped paying her federal income tax, as a protest against the nuclear arms race during the cold war.

Even after the cold war, Benn has kept up her action because of what she sees as excess spending on the military — which Trump has pledged to boost — as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the militarization of the police. Benn said enthusiasm for tax resistance appeared to be growing in the Trump era, though cautiously. The committee estimates that about 8, people a year refuse to pay US federal income tax as an act of civil disobedience, and that number is expected to rise.

Among famous faces, Mia Farrow has tweeted about tax resistance. Gloria Steinem is also planning to take part in the movement. In February before tax time on March 15, or so of us listed our names in ads that we published in the New York Times , together with a quote [from] Thoreau on Civil Disobedience, and an invitation to join us.