Religious Freedom Peace Tax Bill - 2009

May 2, 2009

The National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund is working to create a legal option for conscientious objectors to war taxes. A new fund is proposed in the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund bill (H.R. 2085), which would receive the tax payments of people who certify that they are conscientious objectors according the definition in Selective Service law. The Treasury Department would be charged with dispersing the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund to non-military accounts in the federal budget. Representative John Lewis (GA-5) is the bill’s main sponsor and is seeking more cosponsors. See how you can help Rep. Lewis.

Background on the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Bill

Under current law, there are few options for conscientious objectors to military taxes. Some radically simplify their lives so that their cash income falls below the taxable level or give away substantial funds so as to minimize the taxes they owe. Others pay only a calculated “non-military” portion of their taxes – a choice that is not supported by federal law. In a few cases where the Internal Revenue Service has chosen to prosecute war tax resisters, the resisters have been sentenced to prison.

Peace Tax Fund legislation, first introduced in 1972, serves as an affirmation of the campaign’s central principle, that “each individual has the right not to be coerced into participation in killing other human beings -- whether that participation is physical or financial. Ultimately this right is based in the freedom to exercise religion according to the dictates of conscience.”

New cosponsors have joined in support of the legislation each year and the House of Representatives held hearings on the proposal in 1992. Whether or not the bill passes in the near future, its existence on the congressional docket creates openings for meaningful conversations between pacifists and legislators on the importance of the rights of conscience in the panoply of rights protected by the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. is not the only nation with an active Peace Tax Fund campaign. Sixteen countries, in addition to the United States, have active campaigns seeking legal recognition of conscientious objection to the payment of war taxes. United Nations Commission on Human Rights acknowledged war tax resistance in 1989 "as a legitimate exercise of freedom of thought, conscience and religion." Find out more about the Peace Tax Fund bill.