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IRS seizes Scott Kennedy's Wages for Unpaid War Taxes
The Internal Revenue Service has issued a "Notice of Levy on Wages, Salary, and other Income" requiring the Resource Center for Nonviolence to turn over staff member Scott Kennedy's salary.
The Internal Revenue Service has issued a "Notice of Levy on Wages, Salary, and other Income" requiring the Resource Center for Nonviolence to turn over staff member Scott Kennedy's salary. Complying with the levy, the Resource Center has paid a total of $1,548.32 including unpaid federal income taxes, interest and penalties is demanded by the IRS for tax year 2005.
Speaking on behalf of the Resource Center's Steering Committee, Peter Klotz-Chamberlin commented, "The Resource Center for Nonviolence supports the choice of our employee Scott Kennedy to refuse paying for war waged by the United States government. The Center supports acts of conscience seeking peace and justice by Scott Kennedy and all Americans. Our responsibility to the ongoing work of the Resource Center, however, leads us to reluctantly comply with the IRS levy on Scott's salary."
Kennedy said, "The timing is auspicious during the last two weeks before Federal income taxes are due. The House of Representatives has just recommended another $100 billion for our brutal, immoral, and unwinnable war in Iraq. I won't in good conscience voluntarily pay for such madness, because of its cost in US lives and squandered resources and because of the devastation and loss of life it is causing in Iraq."
The Resource Center has complied with the IRS order by issuing a check in the full amount. The assessed amount equals approximately 6 weeks of Kennedy's salary at the Resource Center for Nonviolence. In 2004 he was the plaintiff in an unsuccessful law suit in the US Federal Court seeking to extend conscientious objector from war status to nonpayment of war taxes. Kennedy is a former mayor of the City of Santa Cruz and three term councilmember.
-- for more information: Peter Klotz-Chamberlin 831 426 9523
Scott Kennedy 831 457 8003
"Let them march all they want, as long as they continue to pay their taxes."
-Gen. Alexander Haig, U.S. Secretary of State, June 12, 1982
"If a thousand [people] were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them and enable the state to commit violence and shed innocent blood."
- Henry David Thoreau, during Mexican-American War of 1846-48
"The two decisive powers of the government with respect to war are the power to conscript and the power to tax."
- A.J. Muste, Executive Secretary of the national religious pacifist organization Fellowship of Reconciliation for 20 years
Speaking on behalf of the Resource Center's Steering Committee, Peter Klotz-Chamberlin commented, "The Resource Center for Nonviolence supports the choice of our employee Scott Kennedy to refuse paying for war waged by the United States government. The Center supports acts of conscience seeking peace and justice by Scott Kennedy and all Americans. Our responsibility to the ongoing work of the Resource Center, however, leads us to reluctantly comply with the IRS levy on Scott's salary."
Kennedy said, "The timing is auspicious during the last two weeks before Federal income taxes are due. The House of Representatives has just recommended another $100 billion for our brutal, immoral, and unwinnable war in Iraq. I won't in good conscience voluntarily pay for such madness, because of its cost in US lives and squandered resources and because of the devastation and loss of life it is causing in Iraq."
The Resource Center has complied with the IRS order by issuing a check in the full amount. The assessed amount equals approximately 6 weeks of Kennedy's salary at the Resource Center for Nonviolence. In 2004 he was the plaintiff in an unsuccessful law suit in the US Federal Court seeking to extend conscientious objector from war status to nonpayment of war taxes. Kennedy is a former mayor of the City of Santa Cruz and three term councilmember.
-- for more information: Peter Klotz-Chamberlin 831 426 9523
Scott Kennedy 831 457 8003
"Let them march all they want, as long as they continue to pay their taxes."
-Gen. Alexander Haig, U.S. Secretary of State, June 12, 1982
"If a thousand [people] were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them and enable the state to commit violence and shed innocent blood."
- Henry David Thoreau, during Mexican-American War of 1846-48
"The two decisive powers of the government with respect to war are the power to conscript and the power to tax."
- A.J. Muste, Executive Secretary of the national religious pacifist organization Fellowship of Reconciliation for 20 years
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By way of background, though I've often been interviewed about my tax resistance, I have never succeeded in getting this aspect of tax resistance included in the story....
I was granted conscientious objector status (1967) during the war against Vietnam. As allowed by law, I performed two years of civilian alternative service instead of military service (1971-1973). I am grateful that our country provides this option for those conscientiously opposed to war.
However, while doing my alternative service, I was closely observing two roughly simultaneous events. Lt. William Calley was being prosecuted for allegedly committing war crimes at My Lai, Vietnam (1968). And Angela Davis was being prosecuted (1972) for allegedly purchasing the weapons used in the fatal shootings during the Marin County Courthouse attempted jail break (1970). The State of California was prosecuting Angela Davis for first degree murder because a weapon that she paid for was used in commission of a murder. The US taxpayers paid for the weapons used by Lt. Calley and others to commit murders in Vietnam....
I realized that it mattered little if were a conscientious objector and exempted from military service while paying taxes used to pay and arm others to fight in my place. I also realized that as a California tax payer, based on the Davis/Calley precedents, I could be prosecuted for the murders committed by Calley
In addition -- International Law does not just support people refusing to commit or support actions violating international law. International law requires it. So too does the law of California require me to refuse to pay taxes to commit crimes.
I began in the 1960's by refusing to pay the Federal Excise Tax on the monthly phone bill, a tax initiated by President Johnson to pay for the Vietnam War. In 1972 I began withholding the % of my federal taxes that go to pay for past, present and future wars (including interest on the war debt, the nuclear weapons program that is hidden within the energy budget, etc.).
For information on the percentage of the income tax going to pay for war, Check out War Resisters League: http://www.warresisters.org/wtr_guide2003.htm
In the 1990s, I was asked to serve as a plaintiff for a lawsuit based on conscientious objection to paying war taxes. The Northern California War Tax Resistance Network brought an unsuccessful legal challenge in the federal courts that tried to extend the protections afforded by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to conscientious objectors to war taxes. I was chosen as a person whom the government had recognized as a conscientious objector to war (during Vietnam) who was refusing to pay war taxes in the 1990s. The Federal Court in Oakland denied my claim that CO status should extend to my war tax resistance, but I still think that the argument is a compelling one.
I fill out my taxes completely and accurately and then refuse to pay any balance over 50% owed, or request/demand a refund if I have over paid 50% of what is owed. I enclose a letter to that effect with my tax return and often send letters to congress, the newspaper, etc., as well. At different times the IRS has refused my demand for a refund. Other years they have sent me a refund, seized my bank account or placed a lien against my salary, collecting penalties and interest as well.
It is important for me not to voluntarily pay the war tax, even if in the end they collect more money from me.
I'm willing to pay the same amount of taxes if the government would assure me the money won't be spent on killing. They refuse to create this option for others and me.
It is REALLY important to distinguish my type of nonviolent civil disobedience against war from: 1) tax evaders -- i.e., those who avoid taxes clandestinely or without publicly accepting responsibility for their action; and 2) those who are conscientiously opposed to paying taxes per se -- usually the right-wing libertarian types. I'm not against taxes (including municipal taxes), just war taxes! http://www.nowartax.org/
Scott Kennedy 831 457 8003
I was granted conscientious objector status (1967) during the war against Vietnam. As allowed by law, I performed two years of civilian alternative service instead of military service (1971-1973). I am grateful that our country provides this option for those conscientiously opposed to war.
However, while doing my alternative service, I was closely observing two roughly simultaneous events. Lt. William Calley was being prosecuted for allegedly committing war crimes at My Lai, Vietnam (1968). And Angela Davis was being prosecuted (1972) for allegedly purchasing the weapons used in the fatal shootings during the Marin County Courthouse attempted jail break (1970). The State of California was prosecuting Angela Davis for first degree murder because a weapon that she paid for was used in commission of a murder. The US taxpayers paid for the weapons used by Lt. Calley and others to commit murders in Vietnam....
I realized that it mattered little if were a conscientious objector and exempted from military service while paying taxes used to pay and arm others to fight in my place. I also realized that as a California tax payer, based on the Davis/Calley precedents, I could be prosecuted for the murders committed by Calley
In addition -- International Law does not just support people refusing to commit or support actions violating international law. International law requires it. So too does the law of California require me to refuse to pay taxes to commit crimes.
I began in the 1960's by refusing to pay the Federal Excise Tax on the monthly phone bill, a tax initiated by President Johnson to pay for the Vietnam War. In 1972 I began withholding the % of my federal taxes that go to pay for past, present and future wars (including interest on the war debt, the nuclear weapons program that is hidden within the energy budget, etc.).
For information on the percentage of the income tax going to pay for war, Check out War Resisters League: http://www.warresisters.org/wtr_guide2003.htm
In the 1990s, I was asked to serve as a plaintiff for a lawsuit based on conscientious objection to paying war taxes. The Northern California War Tax Resistance Network brought an unsuccessful legal challenge in the federal courts that tried to extend the protections afforded by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to conscientious objectors to war taxes. I was chosen as a person whom the government had recognized as a conscientious objector to war (during Vietnam) who was refusing to pay war taxes in the 1990s. The Federal Court in Oakland denied my claim that CO status should extend to my war tax resistance, but I still think that the argument is a compelling one.
I fill out my taxes completely and accurately and then refuse to pay any balance over 50% owed, or request/demand a refund if I have over paid 50% of what is owed. I enclose a letter to that effect with my tax return and often send letters to congress, the newspaper, etc., as well. At different times the IRS has refused my demand for a refund. Other years they have sent me a refund, seized my bank account or placed a lien against my salary, collecting penalties and interest as well.
It is important for me not to voluntarily pay the war tax, even if in the end they collect more money from me.
I'm willing to pay the same amount of taxes if the government would assure me the money won't be spent on killing. They refuse to create this option for others and me.
It is REALLY important to distinguish my type of nonviolent civil disobedience against war from: 1) tax evaders -- i.e., those who avoid taxes clandestinely or without publicly accepting responsibility for their action; and 2) those who are conscientiously opposed to paying taxes per se -- usually the right-wing libertarian types. I'm not against taxes (including municipal taxes), just war taxes! http://www.nowartax.org/
Scott Kennedy 831 457 8003
From Ed Rosenthal to Josh Wolfowitz, from California being the 5th largest economy in the world to it's status as a leader in combating global warming, California, Oregon, and Washington would be better off as a sovereign nation. No more taxes for D.C., no more affiliation with a country that has more blood on its hands than a butcher.
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