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<back | home How I Stopped Bombing Iraq by Dave Gross You already know that things have gotten bad: Our democracy was drunkenly crashed and never sent to the repair shop. The government preaches liberty but imprisons a higher percentage of its citizens than any other country. It tries to evade the few liberties the courts will still enforce by "disappearing" people indefinitely in cages in Cuba (Cuba!) where the Constitution can’t reach. It condones, and even participates in torture — in the twenty-first century — torture! It uses bald-faced lies to justify world-dominating ambitions of a sort we used to like to claim we were defending the world against. So maybe you’ve wondered to yourself, "what will I do if it gets so bad that I have to do something?" — you know that there are few things more shameful than being like the "Good German" who kept his head down and went about his business as the stormtroopers goosestepped by. Or maybe you already know that the line has been crossed, but you’re not sure what to do about it. You’re not alone. There are many people who feel the same way. Some of them have found their calling and are working to fight for what is right. But it’s also true that a lot of people who feel the way you do are actively supporting the very government and the very policies that they know are wrong. I was one of them. Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, famously dismissed the people who were protesting against the continuing arms race by saying, "let them march all they want, so long as they continue to pay their taxes." He hit the nail on the head: I can write all the letters-to-the-editor I want, carry my signs and banners downtown, practice my chants and put that bumper-sticker on my car — those in power don’t much care: that sort of thing has never gotten in their way before. If I’m still paying my taxes, I’m still supporting the government no matter what I’ve got on my T-shirt or my web log. But what’s the point of mentioning this? After all, aren’t "death and taxes" life’s inevitables? I was surprised to find out that the answer is "no." The federal income tax is far from inevitable. Today, about 25% of the people who file federal income tax returns in the United States end up putting a big zero on the line that says how much they owe. Add in the people who don’t even bother to file (not including dependents, who are covered on other people’s tax returns) and the percentage of "taxpayers" who don’t pay federal income taxes is more like 37%. That’s right - more than a third of U.S. "taxpayers" don’t pay any federal income tax at all. Some of them even get "refunds" of money they never paid in the first place. I’m not saying that these people don’t owe any extra money when they fill out their 1040s in April — I’m saying they don’t owe any federal income tax period, in April or any other month. How do they do it? A few of them are crafty and use various sneaky tax dodges. Some don’t need to earn any "income" because they have plenty of money already. Some earn their money in the underground economy where the IRS doesn’t see it. Some just lie and hope the IRS doesn’t notice — usually it doesn’t. But most of these non-taxpayers simply don’t earn enough money to rise above the threshold of taxation in the first place. Fewer than two-thirds of potential taxpayers are actually rowing the ship of state. When the war in Iraq started, I asked myself: "What’s my excuse? Why am I continuing to row?" I see where the ship is going. I know who’s at the helm. I know that what the government is doing is terribly wrong. I know that my tax dollars pay for it. And I know that to avoid being an accessory to the crime is so easy that more than a third of my fellow "taxpayers" are getting away with it. And then I started making excuses: "I don’t want to live in poverty or risk being sent up the river by the IRS." "What if I continue to pay taxes and then use some of my money for good causes that offset the taxes?" "If I don’t pay my taxes, they’ll just get the money from someone else." But the excuses weren’t very convincing to me, even when they were in my own voice. I did my homework and found out that I could live pretty comfortably, and well above the poverty line, and still live tax-free without risking the IRS’s wrath. I concluded that if I didn’t stop paying taxes I wasn’t really as interested in washing the blood off of my hands as I thought I was. It would take some sacrifice, but nothing like the sacrifices I was asking other people to make if I continued to support the government. This year I can earn more money than 90-95% of the people on earth and not pay a dime of it in federal income tax. And I don’t need to play sneaky, illegal games with the IRS, or use bizarre amateur-lawyer theories out of some tax protester’s handbook. I’ll use legitimate deductions and credits in a completely above-board manner, because, like a third of the rest of us, I won’t owe anything. If the IRS comes and audits my returns next year, I’ll come out smelling like a rose. I’ve gone on strike. I might have been convinced to do it for more pay, better benefits, and safer working conditions. But I’m going on strike for something more important: to protect my conscience from participation in what I know to be wrong. And I’m going on strike to take back for myself those hours of the day I used to spend working to satisfy the warped spending priorities of a bunch of craven politicians. Now I’m earning about a quarter of what I was before I took the plunge (I’m still filthy rich compared to most of the world). I consider that’s a pretty good trade to get my soul back. I got rid of my debts and reduced my expenses, and I reconsidered expensive pastimes and possessions — and now I find I’m living a richer life than before. It turns out that it’s true that the best things in life are free, so I’m grabbing ‘em with both fists. I’ve also been reminded that earning less money takes less time; I have more time to enjoy these "best things in life." And I’m spending some of that time spreading the word about how and why to resist the federal income tax. I’ve started a web log called "The Picket Line" at http://www.sniggle.net/Experiment/ on which I write about the path I’m on, what I’ve found out along the way, and how you can take the path too. Because if you and your friends go and hold up a banner downtown, well, that’s just a sign. But if you and your friends go on strike - that’s a SIGN. It’s a sign that you’re really fed up, that you’re not just going to complain about it but you’re willing to change your life to stop supporting it. And that’s what it’s going to take to make a difference. m Dave Gross grew up in San Luis Obispo and currently lives in San Francisco. <back | top^ |