Goals of the Strike
We recognize that fundamental aspects of our democracy are under attack. The Trump Regime is leading an administrative coup on our federal government and our collective resources. This coup is going largely unchallenged by Congress. With this break-down in our system of checks and balances, many are questioning whether or not to continue to pay taxes into a corrupt system. The National Tax Strike is a way to pool our individual acts of tax resistance into a powerful collective voice. Our voice will demand that Congress and the courts retain their power. Our voice will encourage other important tactics and strategies of resistance. Our courage as tax strikers will be contagious.
Tax strikes, also known as tax resistance, have been used as a form of nonviolent civil disobedience to advance social movements around the world including various Quaker-led war tax resistance movements which originated in the 1700s and Gandhi’s Salt Tax protest and march in 1930 against the British government.
Tax resistance has played an important role in American history and independence from British Colonial Rule as early as the Stamp Tax protests of 1765, a precursor to a series of tax resistance efforts that included the 1773 Boston Tea Party.
A tax strike is one, of many ways, to resist and to exercise our people power. Just as our single vote has power, so do our individual tax dollars. When we tax strike, we are saying: No Taxation Without Representation!
We believe in paying taxes to support an accountable, effective government that serves the needs of the public. We have a moral and constitutional duty to not pay federal taxes to a government with unchecked Executive power. Like the founders of the United States, we are taking a principled stance against paying taxes to hold our government accountable.
We recognize that taxes are necessary and needed to provide for the shared benefits of our society, critical infrastructure like roads and bridges, national security, and the federal workers who keep our government running. These services are currently being dismantled without our consent and our goal is to pressure Congress to intervene. This is a temporary measure to regain public power and pressure our representatives to do their jobs.
Risks of Striking
Tax striking is an act of nonviolent civil disobedience, and, like all forms of resistance, it requires us to take some risk. We invite you to consider the many different levels of tax striking and the risks that those might bring. Tens of thousands of Americans have been war tax resisters over the last 60 years, and very few have faced significant consequences. That said, we are in a new era of government surveillance and flagrant abuse of our constitutional rights. We also know that like many governmental agencies, the IRS has faced severe staff and budget cuts. We anticipate that their capacity to track and penalize tax strikers is diminished. Primarily, the IRS wants to recover missing tax dollars plus interest, and they will send lots of automated mail with reminders.
The risks of deferring your federal income tax payments can include penalties and accrued interests for paying too little tax throughout the year. Deciding to defer your income tax payment allows you to strike now and decide later if you will pay. For a more detailed overview of risks of Tax Resistance and Tax Striking please visit NWTRCC’s website.
For more information about underpayment penalties, visit the IRS website.
Filing federal taxes but not paying owed income tax carries additional risks. Not filing federal taxes and not paying owed income taxes also carries additional risks. Read this short pamphlet to learn more about both approaches.
Tax striking may have heightened risk for people currently at risk of being targeted by the Trump Administration as well as people who hold special clearances or titles for their employment.
Despite our current risk assessment and the uncertainty of future risk, we believe it is our moral and constitutional imperative to withhold our federal income taxes to hold the government accountable for its constitutional obligations to the public.
Yes! Consider slowing down your tax payments. File an extension, and delay your payment until October 2025. (Note that the IRS could charge you a penalty for late payment and interest on your overdue taxes). Consider a small, but meaningful amount of tax strike. You could decide to pay only 50% of your taxes or subtract $17.76 from your tax payment. A small underpayment of your taxes is less risky than refusing to file altogether. Find a way that’s creative and unique to you!
If you’re a W-4 employee, you can’t change the amount that you contribute to social security, so it’s automatically withheld no matter how much federal income tax you have withheld, and therefore, as an employee, you always still qualify for Social Security. If you have a federal income tax debt, it doesn’t prevent you from receiving Social Security when you retire.
Depending on how your retirement accounts are set up, federal income taxes may or may not be automatically withheld from those payments. If there is federal income tax already being withheld, you’d want to change that (similar to an employed person changing their W-4) so you can decide later how much, if any, incomes tax you will pay. Depending on the investment company or your pension, it could be as simple as calling the manager of that account and asking to lower or eliminate the federal Income tax withholding with each payment. They might ask you to fill out a W-4P, which is a similar form to what employees have to fill out, but the P stands for pension..
If you’re in what’s known as a community property state (Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin) any income or debt that is accrued after you’re married belongs to both spouses. So even if you file separately, the other spouse could be collected upon for your tax debt. But if you’re in one of the other 41 states that are not community property states, if you decide to file separately (which usually isn’t as advantageous, tax wise, usually you’ll end up owing more), it is a way to protect the other spouse: the debt will not be attributed to them. If one spouse is not participating in the National Tax Strike or does not owe anything because their income is lower, they could have the home or car or other assets in their name. The IRS hasn’t been seizing things like homes and cars for many decades now. But that policy could change in the future, and in anticipation that that could happen, you could file separately and put all the assets in the non-tax-resisting spouse’s name.
The choice is largely personal. We are strongly against fraud. Not filing federal taxes and not paying owed income taxes also carries additional risks. Read this short pamphlet from NWTRCC to learn more about both approaches.
We encourage people to report their participation in the Tax Strike openly because it is a courageous act of upholding The Constitution. You could send a letter to the IRS. You could send your letter to friends, family, and neighbors. You could write a letter to your newspaper and share on social media about joining the National Tax Strike. Some folks have written some beautiful letters to the IRS — see the letter on our How to Strike page for an example.
Yes! You are not alone. Sign up to learn more information, participate in workshops, and learn from other strikers. The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee also offers dedicated counselors across the U.S. to help people interested in Tax Striking and Tax Resistance. You can reach them here.
How to Strike
You probably have federal income taxes being removed from your paycheck. On NWTRCC.org we have resources for how to change your W-4, your withholding, including this guide. There’s a “line B” where you can take additional deductions that will lower the amount of federal income taxes removed from your paycheck.
The first step is having your tax forms filled out, whether you do that yourself or have someone else do them. At that point, you’ll know if you actually owe anything. You could be in a situation where you are already having income federal income taxes withheld, and you’re going to get a refund. So you might submit a new W-4 form to your employer, which you can do at any time. We have instructions at NWTRCC.org.
If you plan on resisting for a number of years, it’s possible that the IRS would garnish your social security, up to 15% is allowable. It would be much less likely that they try to levy or take money out of a retirement or investment account, because that takes more time for IRS staff, and the IRS is losing staff currently.
Correct, self-employed people don’t get a W-4. If you’re working for a corporation or organization, you might get a W-9 form with your basic information, so they can report what they paid you to the IRS and to you at the end of the year, but nothing is withheld from your paycheck. As a self employed person, normally you’re expected to make quarterly payments of your income taxes, and so you already easily have the option of just lowering or eliminating that amount that you pay in during the year, and when April 15 rolls around next year, you can make the decision if you want to pay those federal income taxes or not.
Keep track of any expenses that could be business-related. For example, if you have to drive for your work, you have two options. You could take all the expenses of a vehicle that you only use for business. If you have a vehicle that’s used for many things, you could still get a certain amount taken off for each time you drive it for work. Also if you’re buying books or you have a computer that you need for your job, if you mostly are using it for business, you can deduct it (or a portion). If you have a dedicated cell phone line for business, that’s dedutible. So anytime you have something that looks like I’m using this for my business, there’s a good chance you can use you can deduct it from your income. And in years where you think your income is higher, you could use those as those years as opportunities to invest in your business and buy some items that you know you’ll need in the future.
Self employment tax is essentially what the IRS calls Social Security and Medicare when you’re self employed. So if you’re an employee, when you get your pay stub or W-2 at the end of the year, it’ll show separately your federal income tax, and then Social Security and Medicare. But when you’re self employed, on your on your 1040 tax forms, it’ll just show up as self employment tax. When you’re an employee, your employer actually pays half your Social Security and half your Medicare. So when you’re self employed, you’re paying double into it. And some people do have concerns when they make their quarterly payments, that if they’re just sending in Social Security and Medicare, it’s still just a check or money order made out to the Treasury. Is it really getting to their social security? But we do know from decades of experience, that the IRS does seem to have a heart in that respect. And even if the only money sent in is for Social Security and Medicare, they seem to divert it there first. And when those people retire, their reports show that they paid into Social Security and Medicare those years they qualified, even if they refused to pay their federal income taxes. So you can have a federal income tax debt that doesn’t disqualify you from Social Security and Medicare.
Other Questions
In addition to striking, you may also choose to redirect your taxes to other institutions or causes that are being harmed by the current administration. Striking is a time when our labor is for and with the collective, instead of the boss. Just like a work strike, when we tax strike, we still pay what we owe. Instead of paying our taxes to a King, we direct our tax dollars to support the collective. There are many ways to redirect our taxes.
To Yourself. For some of us in low-paying jobs, without financial security, redirecting tax dollars to pay for essentials, like food, housing, and healthcare, may be necessary. Especially if governmental supports go missing or unpaid.
To Protect Yourself. Some may choose to direct their tax dollars into personal savings or a collective fund, in order to provide some future financial protection. If the IRS attempted to seize money to pay interest and penalties for your tax strike, your savings or a mutual aid penalty fund could be used to support you. Learn how war tax resisters support each other: War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund.
To Protect Others. Those with financial security may want to send their tax dollars to the people and organizations directly impacted by illegal funding cuts or other direct effects of this authoritarian regime. WE recommend finding local mutual aid.
To Protect our Future. Another world is possible. Where might you send your tax dollars to ensure a livable planet? To support worker’s rights? To foster collective liberation? To build local community? When you tell us your striking you can add suggestions of where you put your money.
That’s great – this movement needs you! Go public. Tell everyone you know about your choice to tax strike. Write to your representatives.
Get informed. Our friends at the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee have been resisting war taxes for decades, and they have tons of resources to read and watch, as well as a network of people to assist you and others.
Consider contributing to the War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund for Tax Resisters and Tax Strikers who face penalties for striking.
To get more involved in the Strike, share your contact with us using the Join Our Community page. You’ll be connected to our network, receive periodic updates, and hear about the different ways to support the Strike.
We know people are feeling uneasy about sharing information that may be used against them by a hostile administration. That’s why we’ve created anonymous form to collect only the information needed to track the impact of our movement. When you register your strike, you are only required to share your level of participation to have your strike counted. We ask optional questions to understand the scope of our movement including the estimated amount you’re striking, if you’re redirecting funds to a charity, and if you are affiliated with a religious movement. No personally identifiable information is collected or stored by us when registering your strike.