The Last Word
Day, Samuel H. Jr.
THE LAST WORD Samuel H. Day Jr. The Crime of Frivolity How rare, how precious is frivolity," the novelist E.M. Forster once exclaimed. Few others have had much good to say about...
...5), a military tax refusal guide for radical religious pacifists and people of conscience, which has just appeared in a revised and expanded second edition...
...Five hundred dollars' worth, in fact...
...Be frivolous...
...Its purpose is to deter you from using the form to lower your tax liability by claiming "war tax" deductions or credits, as many tax refusers have done in the past...
...So if harebrained chatter and polished idleness are your thing, if your thoughts about the connection between income tax payments and nuclear war run to the trivial and the petty, if you have a yen to pursue the rare and precious course, take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity afforded you by the United States Internal Revenue Service...
...Durland, who is also coordinator and legal counsel for the Center on Law and Pacifism in Colorado Springs, traces the history of tax resistance from its roots in colonial America (remember the Boston Tea Party...
...is a contributing editor of The Progressive...
...Trivial, petty, worthless, giddy, light-frivolity is all those things...
...Who could blame the IRS for wanting to crack down on that kind of thing...
...Richard and Patricia Hough-Ross of Franklin, Vermont, are also practitioners of frivolity...
...Why should the IRS have to put up with taxpayers (or nonpayers) who fill out their returns in Chinese or Tagalog, cut the forms into paper dolls, or answer questions in invisible ink...
...It turns out, however, that a different kind of frivolity has been upsetting the tax collectors...
...marked with unbecoming levity...
...People Pay for Peace is also a practical guide on how to refuse to pay military taxes and how to cope with the IRS when it comes after you...
...Box 1584, Colorado Springs, CO 80901...
...Section 6702 of the Internal Revenue Code, which went into effect just last year, imposes a $500 penalty for filing a "frivolous" tax return...
...Few others have had much good to say about the subject...
...The IRS usually manages to emerge victorious from such encounters, but the tax refuser has the satisfaction of having stood up for a principle...
...we must nevertheless stand against the atrocities which this country condones through its negligence...
...The United States Internal Revenue Service wants you to know that frivolity can get you into a heap of trouble...
...Frivolous" is the word the IRS uses to describe the position of people who refuse to pay their Federal income taxes (or who insist on withholding part of them) for reasons of conscience...
...But be careful...
...They sent this note in lieu of payment: "As ministers of the Christian gospel trusting in the power of love and faith in God for our defense against whatever evil may befall us, we have come to the point where we must say, 'No more!' " Greg and Joyce Monaco of Portland, Oregon, wrote: "We believe that even though the IRS could, with effort, crush our protest, we must nevertheless protest...
...Karen Harlan of Orono, Maine, is one of those...
...Given to trifling...
...After all, reporting and paying income taxes are hardly occasions for fun and games...
...Of little weight or importance...
...Opening, counting, checking, and verifying all those tax returns on April 15 must be trouble enough without having to contend with frivolity, too...
...Of little weight or importance," says my dictionary...
...to its current expression of protest against skyrocketing military expenditures...
...He estimates that 61 per cent of 1983 income tax collections will be allocated to pay for past, present, and future wars...
...At first thought, that might seem only right and proper...
...The Scottish poet Sir James Mackintosh looked askance at "the frivolous work of polished idleness...
...Frivolous," the IRS would say...
...Most frivolous of all, in the eyes of the IRS, are those who don't want to help pay for the machinery of war...
...Benjamin Disraeli disdained "the harebrained chatter of irresponsible frivolity...
...A year ago, she wrote to the IRS: "As a Quaker, and therefore a pacifist, I cannot be true to my faith and still pay income taxes, knowing that over 50 per cent of every dollar pays for nuclear weapons production and deployment, support of repressive regimes in Third World countries, Samuel H. Day Jr...
...We must sacrifice our 'security' for the sake of the poor rather than sacrifice the poor for the sake of the 'security.'" And Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle, Washington, who announced in 1981 that he would refuse to pay half his income tax (giving it instead to the poor) as a means of resisting the nuclear arms race, said: "The nuclear arms race can sum up in a few final moments the violence of tens of thousands of years, raised to an almost infinite power— a demonic reversal of the Creator's power of giving life...
...Durland's advice for avoiding the $500 penalty: Fill out the tax return correctly, refuse to pay the tax, and submit an accompanying letter explaining why...
...But have you heard that frivolity is also a crime...
...Iam indebted for these examples of frivolity to William Durland, author of People Pay for Peace (Center Peace Publishers, P.O...
...So far as "frivolous" tax returns are concerned, the rule applies only to the way you treat the income tax form—not whether you pay the full amount...
...support of a military service which dehumanizes its members, and interest on the national debt due to past wars...
Vol. 48 • April 1984 • No. 4
