Wednesday, December 20, 2017

going out on a limb here: what IS tax resistance, actually?

It looks like Congress will get their shiny new Tax Code after all. They had to buy off a couple of Senators (screw you, Corker) and threaten the rest, but they got it. And that means that everyone who's not rich is about to get hosed. Royally.

Since I already know how little I will gross in 2017 -- in the higher four figures, which is about what I've earned the last four years running -- this has got me thinking:

So here's an idea: What if everyone who will gross less than $10,000 in 2017, decides to NOT FILE A TAX RETURN?

Because if you're living on that little you can't afford to pay anyway -- and you shouldn't be taxed for being poor.
Breaking the law? Yes
. Sometimes bad laws need to be broken to be destroyed. And before anyone raises concerns about the penalty for tax resistors, let me assure you that if everyone who earned less than $10,000 chose not to file at all, there wouldn't be room in the jails for everyone.
There aren't enough people working at the IRS to audit everyone.
There aren't enough people working in Treasury to manage the chaos that would arise if the government tried to go after every poor person who elected not to file.
So if you're feeling lucky as well as poor, why not go for it? Because the Middle Classes, cowering in their fear of becoming poor, will fall all over themselves to obey even the most unjust laws. They will because doing so holds out the faintest glimpse of hope that this is somehow just a bad dream, from which the lawful and righteous will get to wake up unscathed.
That's DENIAL.
It won't happen. We won't wake up from this reality by cowering in submission.
People talk about waging class war but have no idea what that means.
It means breaking unjust laws.
It means eschewing false notions of "security" in favor of personal agency to effect real change.
It means accepting the risks that come with choosing to be free.
And -- newsflash -- it means accepting your own mortality. Because so much of what's being played with here depends on society being in denial of death. If you think you'll live longer, or forever, you're more likely to invest in a system that lulls you into thinking you can have it all, and keep it.
We're all going to die someday. There will be nothing to take with us.
So what if we lived like that was the truth NOW?
Discuss.
And share this post if you like.
Because I'm not officially calling for organized rebellion. I'm merely wondering aloud what it would look like. So feel free to toss this idea around with your friends and see what you come up with.
Cheers!

1 comment:

LizzieL said...

I have heard about this on our news but one never knows how biassed or not that news is. On the BBC Radio 4's Today programme, which I listen to every day, (I think this was yesterday) the presenter interviewed a lady who was someone high up in the government. I can't remember who it was. The presenter said - wouldn't the poor suffer from this new tax? She said, justifying the tax, (and I can't guarantee I have remembered this correctly) - that no they wouldn't because the poor didn't (earn enough to?) pay tax anyway. So it is very interesting to read about it from your personal point of view.