The infuriating reality of being a U.S. taxpayer today is that our taxes are being spent on everything from ICE’s budget, which terrorizes communities of color, to dystopian levels of surveillance technology from Palantir, to the countless weapons enabling the Zionist genocide in Palestine. While many people vehemently disagree with the projects their taxes fund, the act of refusing to pay those taxes, known as tax resistance, remains under-discussed.
According to the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, tax resistance has a long history in the U.S., with well-known participants including Henry David Thoreau and Julia Butterfly Hill. Essentially, it is when an individual refuses to pay some or all of their taxes because of a moral objection to the causes they fund. When it comes to tax resistance, there are many different strategies of varying legalities.
As a preface, I am not a lawyer or a tax expert. I am writing specifically to U.S. citizens, since I have not researched how taxation differs for citizens of other countries. Everyone interested in tax resistance should research it further and look into the resources on the NWTRCC’s website: nwtrcc.org.
If you, like many students, are single, under 65, and a dependent, you can legally participate in tax resistance if your gross earned income is less than $14,600 and your unearned income is less than $1,300. Of course, if this applies to you, you probably didn’t owe any taxes last year and likely got a refund when you filed your tax return. Most likely, this was because your employer withheld taxes from your paycheck. While it seems like you didn’t actually pay the government any money, your withheld wages essentially acted as a loan to the government that it didn’t even have to pay interest on. The bigger your tax refund, the more you loaned it (NWTRCC – Practical 1).
So, how do you opt out of providing this loan? If you made less than the filing limit last year and you expect to do so again this year, you can update your W-4 to claim exemption from withholding, meaning your employer will not withhold any wages from your paycheck. Ask your employer about updating your W-4. On page two of the W-4 are instructions on how to claim exemption: fill out your name, address, and social security number on lines 1(a) and 1(b); write “Exempt” in the space under 4(c); and sign on line 5. Then submit your new W-4 to your employer (IRS). It may take a few weeks for the change to be reflected in your paycheck. To double-check whether you’re eligible for exemption from withholding, you can use the IRS’ Interactive Tax Assistant (IRS).
It is also possible to participate in tax resistance if your income exceeds the filing limit, but it becomes a form of civil disobedience and is therefore illegal, opening you up to legal ramifications from either state or the federal governments. The IRS has dealt with significant budget cuts by the Trump Administration and likely lacks the resources to go after the vast majority of those who participate.
It is true that our taxes also fund social programs like Medicare that benefit many people who rely on them. If you have reservations about tax resistance for this reason, note that the taxes withheld for Social Security and Medicare (Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes) are separate from those withheld for federal income tax, so updating your W-4 as described above doesn’t stop you from paying into those programs. Instead of trusting the IRS to choose the best social programs to fund, many tax resisters invest that money directly into their communities. For example, one might fund organizations such as Food Not Bombs, anti-militarization protests, reparations to Black communities, voluntary land taxes to Indigenous nations, or grassroots organizations in countries harmed by U.S. imperialism.
Tax resistance is an important form of protest because it is more direct than appealing to the government through demonstrations or petitions. However, as long as the vast majority of taxpayers continue to pay, the U.S. government will continue to receive funding for its war machine. While it is important that we continue to resist fascism and imperialism through other means, let us not ignore the possibility of tax resistance as an option. As citizens and contributors to the U.S. economy, it is our responsibility to not just fight against the evils that our tax dollars enable, but also to avoid funding those projects in the first place.
