Attack of the Tax Resistors

When US and UK forces invaded Iraq in 2003, millions of people took to the streets to protes – to little effect. The bombs of Shock and Awe kept falling. By some estimates the civilian death toll stands at over 150,000.

Like many people, tonight’s guest David Gross had a crisis of conscience. And yet unlike many people, he’s done something about it. He’s stopped paying taxes. Not by tax avoidance, but by lowering his income below the tax threshold - and by using as many loopholes as he can find within the law. You know, just like all our much-loved multi-national corporations do!

But would his solutions work for you? His recent book - 99 Tactics of Successful Tax Resistance Campaigns - combs through history for examples of tax resistance movements that actually changed government policy (like the Suffragettes. Such tactics don't come without risk: despite Mr. Gross' best efforts, the IRS is after him for thirty grand and if his profile gets much higher he risks incarceration.

Is he an elitist? A traitor? Or - sin of all sins in the USA - does he not support the troops? Tonight, our host and self-confessed “taxpaying mug” producer play good cop/bad cop with one brave individual who refuses to fund the system error they call the war on terror.

• Catch Mr. Gross' recent feature in the Atlantic: Can Quitting A Job Help End War?
  
• Or track his nefarious schemes and suggestions on his blog The Picket Line
  

Photo by Lwp Kommunikáció

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