He Lives on the Brink of Poverty So the IRS Won’t Seize His Assets
By Deena Guzder
Special to Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN — Many readers have doubtless just finished their taxes a few days ago, spending hours crunching numbers and trying to sort through many baffling forms.
Brooklyn-based writer and photographer Ed Hedemann, however, has not paid any federal income tax since 1970 and has no intention of starting now.
The 62-year-old, mild-mannered pacifist says he owes the government $70,000. This sum is worth several cluster bombs at $14,000 each and dozens of $9 hand grenades, but instead, he has donated the money to Global Exchange, American Friends Service Committee and other humanitarian efforts.
Hedemann says he sleeps better knowing his tax dollars are being redirected to peaceful causes. “I run a risk of getting in trouble for not paying my taxes, but not as big a risk as the people of Iraq will suffer if I do pay,” said Hedemann, the author of “War Tax Resistance: A Guide to Withholding Your Support from the Military.”
The antiwar activist is so dedicated to his cause that he lives on the brink of poverty; he doesn’t own a home, car or bank account for fear the IRS will seize his assets. “I don’t want to finance this country’s war-making machine,” Hedemann said.
People like Hedemann represent the cerebral wing of the antiwar movement — protesters who take their campaigns into the solitude of their homes and the privacy of their bank accounts. Tax resisters say their ranks are increasing as discontent over the war in Iraq grows. The U.S. Treasury Department doesn’t track the reasons why people refuse to pay their taxes, however, so whether their number is stagnant or growing is difficult to determine.
In addition to writing “War Tax Resistance,” Hedemann helped found the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) in 1982 to provide information and support to people considering war tax resistance.
The committee urges people to protest the war by refusing to pay anywhere from a dollar to their entire federal income tax bill. It estimates that 51 percent of 2008 federal taxes will go toward the military; the U.S. Office of Management and Budget puts the number closer to 21 percent.
Bruce Friedland, an IRS spokesman, declined to comment on how many tax-withholding citizens it would take to put a crimp in military actions.
However, says the IRS, antiwar sentiment is not a legitimate reason to not pay taxes. “No law, including the Internal Revenue Code, permits a taxpayer to avoid or evade tax obligations on the grounds that the taxpayer does not agree with the government’s use of the taxes collected,” said Eric Smith, another IRS spokesman.
Still, this doesn’t mean the tax man is quick to haul protesters off to jail. Conscientious tax resisters usually receive form letters from the IRS demanding payment for back taxes, penalties and interest.
Hedemann has been receiving such letters for years, but has had an IRS representative knock on his door only five times in his life. “Once, I tried telling him about the federal pie chart and where his money was going, but he didn’t seem interested,” Hedemann said.
There are no constitutional, federal or tax laws that protect conscientious objectors, according to Peter Goldberger, a Pennsylvania attorney who represents Hedemann and other tax protesters. But the resisters rarely receive any jail time because “the IRS doesn’t have the resources to enforce the law, and their priorities are going after those with a lot of money,” Goldberger said.
Goldberger added that the IRS is wary of pressing charges because “the publicity these cases generate usually makes conscientious tax resisters sympathetic” and “they’re not tax cheats.”
Inspired by Thoreau
These pacifists are inspired by writer Henry David Thoreau, who refused to finance slavery and the Mexican-American War in 1847 by withholding his poll tax.
In the past 60 years, there were only 45 IRS court actions against war tax resisters, Goldberger said. Most resisters have been hauled into court either for not cooperating with the government by refusing to hand over records or, during the height of Vietnam War protests in the early 1970s, because they fraudulently altered their W-4 forms.
Hedemann was prosecuted eight years ago for refusing to divulge financial information to IRS investigators. Goldberger successfully argued that complying with the government would violate his client’s Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.
Many war tax resisters object to military spending on religious grounds. Robin Harper, a Quaker and war tax resister, says he sends the IRS a letter each year that states: “The First Amendment of our Constitution guarantees me the right to practice my religion freely, and I choose not to kill or pay others to take human life.”
Karl Meyer, a self-employed carpenter in Nashville, Tenn., said, “If I send $1,000 to D.C., I doubt 10 cents would go to direct services.” But, he said, “If I send it to the Catholic Worker community, the whole $1,000 will go to the hungry and poor. The logic is crushing and overwhelming.”
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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