Methods of Tax Resistance

Methods of tax resistance have been used by the tax resistors who refuse to pay taxes due to opposition with the institution that collects taxes or with some of its policies.

Tax Resistance is usually undertaken by the people who are pacifists and also by those who are conscientious objectors who decide not to fund government activities they consider violent and unjustified. Resistance of Tax is also done by the people who use it as a technique for movements of non-violent resistance. The various Methods of Tax Resistance are:

• Refusing to pay specific taxes
• Redirection
• Paying taxes under protest
• Tax evasion
• Tax avoidance
• Reducing income and expenditure
• Refusal to pay taxes

Refusing to pay specific taxes is a Method of Tax Resistance under which the tax resistors refuse to pay only certain particular taxes. The tax resistors adopt this Tax Resistance Method for those taxes that are offensive to them. Another Method of Tax Resistance is redirection under which the resistors of tax refuse to pay a part or all part of the tax but at the same time make an equal amount of donation to charity. By using the Tax Resistance Method of redirection, the tax resistors want to demonstrate that they are not selfish and want their earnings to be used for common good.

Paying taxes under protest is one of the various methods of tax resistance under which the tax resistors submit their taxes. But at the same time they include letters of protest along with their forms of tax. Another Tax Resistance Method is tax evasion under which the tax resistors lower the amount of tax that they pay to the government by not declaring the actual amount of money that they have earned. Tax avoidance is also a Method of Tax Resistance following which the resistors of tax lower the amount of tax that they pay to the government by using techniques of tax avoidance that are legal.

Reducing income and expenditure is another Method of Tax Resistance under which the resistors of tax change their lifestyles and lives so that they have to pay less tax to the government. Refusal to pay taxes is the most characteristic and dramatic Tax Resistance Method following which the tax resistors refuse completely to pay a tax. The resistors of tax do this by either openly refusing to pay a tax or by ignoring the tax bill.