Can somebody please set me straight on why a tax strike is not being widely proposed as a resistance tactic?

@AAKL Like I get the "If nobody else does it you're screwed" argument, but that is true of any mass protest.

And...it definitely did occur to people. We get the term "Civil Disobedience" from Henry David Thoreau's essay about the idea!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_resistance_in_the_United_States

@mttaggart I'm not sure how that would work. The option to file a W-4 with Exempt hasn't been there in a decade. Employers will still be paying their portion. I'm sure I'm missing something.

@Lightfighter It's a good point. I wonder how many people do still pay directly on the 1040 though.

@mttaggart If levels of government found themselves suddenly having a large deficit, from a loss of taxes, it isn't going to be the war machines and immigration violence which get cut. It'll be schools and social programs.

@jripley That is a solid point

@mttaggart Because we don't pay taxes at the end of the year, we file them, and often get a refund. Organizing a tax strike would need to be done at least a year in advance (so people could file exempt), and people would be vulnerable for the entire durration of that year. It would also be easy to track everyone involved.

@Epic_Null Makes sense!

@Lightfighter
Do "employers" like uber actually withhold taxes? I would think the most tax resistance would come from from gig workers these days. Its probably a big part of why they started forcing companies like cashapp and paypal to be reporting income above $600

@mttaggart

@gravitas @Lightfighter To that point though, you'd need to plan a year in advance since those workers are filing quarterly as self-employed.

@gravitas I believe most gig workers are 1099, so they pay their own taxes as they are not legally employees @mttaggart

@mttaggart I thought this description of Soft Secession seemed well-informed. And I see things like Chicago, MN, etc as well as other government pushback as being a mix of Step 1 and Step 2. So having additional structure around the “when” side & consequences of Uncooperative Federalism helped me. YMMV https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror/116056799857446845

@ckure That is a solid breakdown, and I think it's right that the states themselves have to withold the revenue. But the second CA does that, some very bad things will start happening in and around San Diego, is my guess.

@mttaggart yeah, seeing the intermediate steps gave me some relief because I could envision the chaos of stopping funding, and I’m glad to see the less-inflammatory options I couldn’t come up with were being enacted. It gives me hope that others are doing more moderate things before we get to a point like that.

@hotsoup No that's right; they will. At least for folks paying via witholding.

@mttaggart How would that even work? The vast majority of US tax payers don't write checks (or the equivalent) to the Feds, they have their taxes withheld and transmitted to the IRS by their employers, with legal penalties for the employer as well as the employee if that does not happen.

@ElyseMGrasso Yes, the point has been made quite thoroughly, thank you.