WAR TAX RESISTERS

There are some causes worth dying for

but none worth killing for

- Albert Camus

Henry David Thoreau

If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood —Henry David Thoreau

On July 24 or July 25, 1846, Thoreau ran into the local tax collector Sam Staples, who asked him to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes. Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the Mexican-American War and slavery. He spent a night in jail because of this refusal. To his immense irritation, his aunt paid the fee to release him. The experience had a strong impact on Thoreau and he lectured about war tax resistance at the Concord Lyceum on The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government which formed the basis of his essay Resistance to Civil Government, later renamed Civil Disobedience.

WTR

War Tax Resistance (WTR) was founded in 1969. By telling ordinary citizens how to use their status as taxpayers to register opposition to the ongoing war in Vietnam, WTR would give the right of conscientious objection to all people, not just to those of draft age. Ordinary men and women could “halt and prevent wars” both by refusing to fight and refusing to pay. WTR also hoped to breathe new life into an anti-war movement whose strategies had so far failed to end the war. As the Student reported in April 1970, the nation’s young protestors and reformers had begun to suspect that mass demonstrations were no longer commensurate with present economic, social and political realities. Even as they regularly took part in antiwar protests at nearby Westover Air Force Base, Amherst College students had grown “less concerned about protests beyond the Valley” by the early 1970s. WTR, advocates hoped tax resistance would provide citizens with more concrete avenues of expression.

The Peace Tax 7

Britain became the first country to recognise conscientious objection to military service through the Military Service Act 1916, including a clause to excuse those who felt morally compromised and offer them alternative nonviolent service. Since then, the right to conscientious objection to military service has spread throughout the world and is a human right under Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We no longer have conscription - except when it comes to taxes. The Peace Tax 7 mounted a nine year campaign to prevent the state from coercing taxpayers into funding military interventions that would lead to the death of men, women and children worldwide.

ProbityCo

While the students mounting protests against the war in Vietnam believed they were breaking the law by withholding their taxes, the counter argument is that if you have reason to suspect your government is in breach of ratified international laws, it is your duty - both legally and morally - not to be complicit in these crimes by funding them with your taxes. So to avoid aiding and abetting the crimes of government, taxpayers can set aside their taxes in a trust, listing the government as Primary Beneficiary.

The government can collect the taxes as soon as they are willing and able to prove beyond any reasonable doubt, that they are no longer in breach of ratified international laws and that they are willing to uphold and honour those ratified international laws to which they are a signatory.

There are a number of different methods of war tax resistance. It is essential that you consider the potential consequences of these methods so that you can make a fully informed decision about which level of resistance feels possible and realistic for you.

The ProbityCo method involves setting up a revocable trust (see Trust: Steps 1-6 for this procedure).
Other forms of tax resistance include refusing to pay the percentage that you believe will be spent on war, or;
Ensuring that you earn less than the taxable income of £12, 570 annually.
You can send it your tax return and pay it, but if you do so, enclose a letter of protest with it which you should also send to your MP, local newspaper editor etc.

The More Actions section details forms of protest you may wish to get involved with that don’t involve tax resistance.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”

Dwight D. Einsenhower

Forms of War Tax Resistance

All 230 of our taxes and fines go into Parliament's Consolidated Fund

The Consolidated Fund diverts 5-10% of our taxes towards defence, which includes preparation for war, illegal munitions, ships, planes, shells etc and is currently calculated at £55-80BN annually - an average cost to the taxpayer of £1,875/year since 2001.

Thisis not defence in the classic sense of protecting Britain from external attacks, but a defence industry, subsidised by the taxpayer at the cost of millions of lives worldwide.

Weapons makers in the US have spent $2.5 billion/year on lobbying over the past two decades, employing on average over 700 lobbyists per year over the past five years. That is more than one lobbyist for every member of Congress. The arms industry is a business.

War Tax Resistance

Chris Coverdale, a peace activist, explains the lawful duty to withhold tax

History shows us that the most effective form of resistance to corrupt Government is tax rebellion. Magna Carta, the founding of the United States of America, Indian independence, the end of the Vietnam War and the repeal of the poll tax all came about as a result of tax rebellions– the refusal of the people to pay tax. Without citizens’ money Governments are powerless.

Today taxpayers have an historic opportunity to engage in lawful tax rebellion. For the first time in history demanding, collecting or paying taxes are criminal offences against both international and domestic law. Under the laws of war citizens are forbidden from taking part in warfare on the side of an aggressor and they are legally bound to disobey their Government’s orders to support, fund or take part in war or its preparation.

The very essence of the Charter is that individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience imposed by the individual State. He who violates the laws of war cannot obtain immunity while acting in pursuance of the authority of the State, if the State in authorising action moves outside its competence under international law.

This legal duty to refuse to obey manifestly illegal Government orders includes tax demands. If a government uses money raised by taxation to wage illegal war or to attack and kill civilians, then under international and domestic law the taxpayer’s normal duty to pay tax is reversed and becomes a duty to withhold tax until their Government obeys and enforces the law.

Each of the wars fought supported or funded by Britain since 2001, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Palestine, the Yemen and the Ukraine, was and is illegal and taking part in such a war on the side of the aggressor States constitutes five of the worst crimes known to mankind – murder, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and a crime against peace.

Not only does the illegal use of armed force violate the Treaty for the Renunciation of War 1928, the UN Charter 1945 and the UN Declaration on Principles of International Law 1970, but by taking part in the killing of 1.4M adults and 600,000 children, leaders and taxpayers of UK, NATO and ISAF States committed the criminal offences of complicity in murder, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes against peace in breach of the Nuremburg Principles and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

PAYING TAX IS A WAR CRIME WHEN IT’S USED TO FUND ILLEGAL WAR

Under international and domestic law every citizen of a government involved in these 21stC wars on the side of the aggressor States who has paid tax knowing that some of the money will finance warfare, is technically an accessory to the war crimes committed by their Government.

Terrorism Act 2000 section 17. A person commits an offence if he enters into or becomes concerned in an arrangement as a result of which money or other property is made available or is to be made available to another, and he knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that it will or may be used for the purposes of terrorism.

Terrorism = the use of firearms or explosives endangering life for a political cause.

TO AVOID FUNDING ILLEGAL WARS OF AGGRESSION, SET ASIDE YOUR TAX INTO A TRUST ACCOUNT WITH HM GOVERNMENT LISTED AS THE PRIMARY BENEFICIARY

It is important to note however that legislators provided relief for taxpayers who were deceived into believing that the wars and the actions of their government were legal. Providing we end our involvement in warfare immediately and withhold all taxes from our government and its agents, we will not be punished for paying tax and funding the illegal wars and war crimes.

Taxpayers can prove that they have completely and voluntarily abandoned their support for the crimes of their government by diverting their taxes into a Taxation Trust account held by independent trustees. The funds in a taxation trust account cannot be released to tax collectors until the terms and conditions of the Trust are met in full. In this case, because our leaders and Governments have broken the laws of war, the terms of the Trust Deed must be set to ensure that taxes are not handed over until such time as the Government obeys and enforces the law, ends its participation in war and mass murder, recalls all military forces to their home bases and starts criminal proceedings against those leaders responsible for the wars and war crimes.

I’m often asked whether taxpayers can be prosecuted for withholding their taxes when Legislation demands that you pay them. But Legislation has a conflict of interests when you can show you are upholding and obeying the laws against funding murder, terrorism, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, if the same Legislative process tries to force you into funding these crimes. If you have paid your taxes into a properly constituted trust, and the tax collector has received a copy of the Trust Deed and the lawful redemption criteria it contains, you are not wilfully refusing to pay tax, merely ensuring your taxes will be used responsibly and not to fund the crimes of government.

Anyone could be prosecuted as an accessory to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide if they continue to pay tax knowing that some of the money will be used by the Government to fund its wars and the murder of innocent men women and children. If you continue to pay taxes, such as income tax, council tax, VAT, PAYE or corporation tax, or make payments or repay loans to the Government after you’ve been warned that it is a criminal offence to do so, and if our law enforcement authorities enforce the law rather than enforcing government crimes, you could be prosecuted as an accessory to our leaders’ crimes. Unlikely, but possible.

WE NEED TO COMPEL OUR LEADERS TO OBEY AND ENFORCE THE LAW

By engaging in lawful tax resistance and diverting taxes into trust accounts, taxpayers regain control over their money, their Government and the law. Without the support and consent of the people Governments are powerless. No longer can they use taxpayers’ funds to wage unlawful wars, murder civilians, bail out the banks, finance fatal toxic inoculation campaigns or support the rich at the expense of the poor. By diverting tax payments into trust accounts we can force our political, civil, judicial and military leaders out of office and into court. By using the law to force Governments to obey the law we engage in a civil obedience campaign.

Tax rebellion is the single most effective non-violent way of forcing governments to obey the laws of war, but it only succeeds when thousands take part. If most taxpayers continue to pay tax then Governments will continue to wage illegal war. So it is down to each of us to end the carnage. If you want to uphold the law, stop the wars and end the killing, then withhold tax. If you want the wars and the killing to continue, then continue paying tax – the choice is yours.

“War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal 1946 If leaders and taxpayers obey the law, nation States can never wage war.

Chris Coverdale - ProbityCo/Make War History - January 2024

Working Towards Responsible Taxation