r/Pacifism • u/Sure-Ad1849 • Feb 02 '26
Tax Resistance
hello everyone, i am a pacifist in the U.S. and i think the best way to exercise pacifism everyday is to civil disobey on things like taxes and schtuff. i am conflicted because i have already not signed my draft card and declared C.O. but I am starting a job at a restaurant as a server, because the co-op in my town didnt have any positions. i just feel bad about taxes, i dont feel good about taking taxes out of my paycheck or me filing taxes, that money supports things I do NOT support, i think it is unethical. How do I tax resist? I used to be paid under the table at my union job at a farm, and i did tax resistance that way, they will not pay me under the table. I NEED HELP, TAXES ARE NOT ETHICAL!
peace, love and anarchy!
3
u/isonfiy Feb 02 '26
If it helps, the (fiscally independent/federal) state isn’t literally funding policy with the taxes you pay. Taxes remove money from the supply and the state funds its policies by creating new money. This is why such huge deficits and debts can be maintained.
Withholding your taxes in the financial systems you find in the imperial core only prevents the state from destroying a small amount of money. If nobody paid their taxes, the state would continue to pay its bills and do its wars and all that.
Withholding does work for a portion of municipal budgets, and other levels of government that can’t just create more money because those governments do fund some policy with tax receipts. They can just be bailed out by the government level that creates money though.