QUICK UPDATE! I was going to let this site die once the domain registration expired December 2015, but when people saw that I was going to kill it, they wanted to see it continue so I decided to renew the domain through December 2017.
2016 W4 Form now available.
There are several web sites that advocate withholding all or part of your federal income tax to resist the unjust and illegal war in Iraq, but most suggest increasing your exemptions on form W4 to reduce, but not eliminate your federal tax withholding.
File a new W-4 form with your employer for 2016. On line 7, you can claim exemption from payroll withholding. All you do is write in the word "Exempt" on line 7, sign and date the form and give it to your employer. No more income tax will be withheld. Note that you will still be paying social security and Medicare taxes, as well as state income tax, but most war resisters do not object to helping out with retirement and medical expenses for our senior citizens, only the vast sums of money wasted on a war that nobody wants. And if the war isn't enough reason to resist federal taxes, the bank bailout (which the public opposed by a 500:1 margin, but congress passed anyway) robbing the taxpayer to give money to banks to loan back to us at interest is yet another reason to stop feeding the monster.
Be advised that unless you can really claim no tax liability (such as by having a very low income or a lot of deductible losses), the IRS will consider this to be tax evasion and you will be hassled. Although the IRS no longer requires the employer to send in W4 forms with greater than 9 exemptions, the IRS will consider the validity of the claims when the W2 reports from the employer are received. At that point the IRS can tell the employer to reduce the number of exemptions, so your W4 resistance may be short lived unless you change jobs or have an employer willing to resist with you. However, if we all band together and do this NOW (2016), six months of staving the war machine of money may turn the tide. One should make note of the following letter published in the whatreallyhappened.com letters page:
READER: I wanted to tell you my story about tax resistance so that others can follow in my footsteps.
I started tax protesting shortly after the war started because the crimes that this country was committing were too much for my conscious to handle, and because I felt that I needed to make a statement and do something. Because of these crimes I have become a far more serious activist as well as an adamant war tax protester.
Deciding not to do what many war tax protesters do, I decided to keep my day job working for a non-profit. At this job I had filled out a W2, which describes me as a taxable commodity. Over time the IRS had sent me a notice that my 15 exemptions are not warranted and I need to pay years of back taxes. I wrote them back and told them that I was not interested in supporting torture and the murderous behavior of a rogue government by paying taxes.
About a month later, they sent me another letter saying that the tax courts had already deemed "ethical, conscientious, and moral" reasons to not be valid reasons for not paying my tax liability, and in this letter they said that they were going to put a lien on my wages. So, I wrote them back saying that that was an unfortunate decision by the courts for taking the side of the murderers and torturers, but nevertheless, I stated in my letter, that if I paid my taxes I would be breaking international and domestic law by supporting such activities, and this would also make me an accomplice to these crimes. I threatened to take them to court on the legal implications of my paying taxes in support of high crimes.
You know what. I have not heard from these guys since. (It has been about 9 months since my last letter). They have not put a lien on my paycheck or touched my bank account. Did I find a Pandora's box that the IRS wants to keep close? I certainly hope so, and this is also why I would like to share this story with your readers.
We need to do something to stop the war machine, and one way we can do it is by refusing to pay for it. It's really the least that we can do.
WRH: Most IRS collection decisions rest on how much it will cost to get the money from you. Letters and phone calls are cheap. Further action costs more and they may wait until interest and penalties make the potential gains from further action worth what they will have to spend. I am not a tax law expert but I believe that there is a 5 year statute of limitations on back taxes If the IRS does not start the process to grab money from you within 5 years of the year the taxes are owed for, you are off the hook. Note: The IRS now has a ten year (not five year) period in which they can go after past due taxes. ed. For that reason, many tax collections show up just before that 5 year mark, owing to the backlog at the IRS (there are more Americans dealing with tax problems than you might imagine). One final note. Before defying the dragon, please remember that all the judges and all the people who work in that courthouse make their money from your taxes, so do NOT expect fair treatment or even the pretense of concern for the Constitution and the law. Yes, there have been victories in court cases where the IRS was unable to prove there actually is a law requiring a direct unapportioned tax on wages and salaries, but those victories are the exception, not the rule. The solution to the problem of too high taxation and the illegality of the income tax will never be won in the courts, it will be won by a mass political movement of the people who when they have had enough will stand together and say "No".
Clearly now is the time to take the fight to the next level. Since Congress won't cut off the funding, WE THE PEOPLE MUST! But everyone reading this must join the non-violent W4 resistance movement in order to make a significant dent in the war income stream and to keep the IRS so busy that they won't have time to hassle everyone.