Tax resistance is the refusal to pay tax because of opposition to the government that is imposing the tax or to government policy or as opposition to the concept of taxation in itself. Tax resistance is a form of direct action and if in violation of the tax regulations, a form of civil disobedience. Examples of tax resistance campaigns include those advocating home rule, such as the Salt March led by Mohandas Gandhi, and those promoting women's suffrage, such as the Women's Tax Resistance League.
War tax resistance is the refusal to pay some or all taxes that pay for war and a form of nonviolent resistance. War tax resistance may be practiced by conscientious objectors, pacifists, or those protesting against a particular war. As a percentage of income tax funds military expenditure, war tax resisters may avoid or refuse to pay some or all income tax. For example, war resisters may choose to avoid taxes by living simply below the income tax threshold.
Tax resisters are distinct from tax protesters who deny that the legal obligation to pay taxes exists or applies. Tax resisters may accept that some law commands them to pay taxes but they still choose to resist taxation.
Read more about Tax Resistance: History, Views and Aims, Methods
Famous quotes containing the words tax and/or resistance:
“To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“The greatest, or rather the most prominent, part of this city was constructed with the design to offer the deadest resistance to leaden and iron missiles that might be cast against it. But it is a remarkable meteorological and psychological fact, that it is rarely known to rain lead with much violence, except on places so constructed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)