[Opinion. Death and taxes. Yax resistance is one of the scarier forms of nonviolent civil disobedience. I know personally tax resisters who had their homes seized and auctioned by the IRS. I never paid US taxes in all the years I lived there. And I made sure I had nothing to seize.] I am not paying American war taxes this year. Will you join me? War tax resistance has a venerable tradition dating back to days before the US was even born. It’s time to revive this tradition Clara Vondrich The Guardian: 26 Mar 2026 More than $20bn. That’s roughly the cost of our military operation in Iran to date. Tax day is a month away. If you’re like me, it makes your stomach turn to watch the US practice regime change in the Middle East – again. If you’re like me, the reckless murder of more than 150 little girls in the name of “liberating” Iranian women fills you with rage. The worst part? You and I literally paid for this. Today, our government dollars at work look like the hellscape that was Tehran, where our military intentionally blew up oil storage facilities whose burning black rain will deliver cancer to generations to come. We are financing chemical warfare, a war crime, banned under the Geneva conventions. All of this, of course, against the backdrop of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where up to 70% of the weapons come from the United States and the revolting and deadly paramilitary operations of our Department of Homeland Defense and ICE. The American people did not sign up for this. Congress was neither consulted nor did it approve the opening attack on 28 February. War tax resistance has a venerable tradition dating back to days before our nation was even born. In 1637, the Algonquin Nation refused to pay taxes to the Dutch to support their new military fort. Quakers were the first organized religion to oppose wartime taxation as a rule. War tax resisters were a big part of opposition to the Vietnam war, with an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 people refusing to pay federal taxes. Not paying taxes is a scary thing to do. Nevertheless, many war tax resisters never face consequences That said, not paying taxes is a scary thing to do. And there can be impacts to credit or other penalties. Nevertheless, many war tax resisters never face consequences. Since the second world war, only two individuals have served time for non-payment of taxes in protest of US military interventions. Estimates vary, but up to 50% of our federal taxes go towards military spending, Not on my dime. Clara Vondrich is a lawyer and climate advocate.
