Faith In Action by Alberta Lindsey

Pray for Peace, Pay for War?
Resister Keeps Income Below Taxable Level
 
David Depp doesn’t want his federal tax money to be used to support war.
 
He feels so strongly about it that he keeps his income low enough that he doesn’t have to pay Uncle Sam on April 15.
 
The 70-year-old Hanover County resident, who served in the Navy, became a war resister during the Vietnam War.
 
At first he tried withholding a percentage of his federal income tax, to represent the portion that went to support war and the military. But that didn’t work.
 
“Year after year, I would have a little battle with [the Internal Revenue Service.] They never would respond to my reasons for not paying,” he said. The IRS would seize what Depp owed or garnishee his wages to get what was theirs.
 
In 2007, a median income U.S. family paid $2,628 in federal income taxes, according to the National Priorities Project, a non-profit research organization. Out of each dollar, 42.2 cents went for military expenses. Of that, 28.7 cents went for current military and war spending, 10 cents went for interest on military debt and 3.5 cents went for veterans’ benefits.
 
 
Funds to Charity, Instead
The “war tax” portion of his income tax which Depp withheld wasn’t spent on himself. It went into an escrow account which was formulated by an organization of war resisters. The interest on the account was presented to a charity on “tax day” each year, said Depp, who used to also demonstrate in front of the main Richmond Post Office on April 15.
 
The demonstrators called themselves the War Tax Alternative Group, which was affiliated with a national organization. But as Depp got older, demonstrating fell by the wayside.
 
“I decided to retire early to reduce my income so I wouldn’t have to pay taxes,” he said. “I retired at age 55 in 1991 after about 15 years of yearly conflict with the IRS….I live with somewhat less, which isn’t really a bad thing.”
 
While Depp and the IRS had different ideas about whether Depp should pay “the war tax,” he sold his house and he took the $36,000 left after paying off the mortgage and built a house in the country. “So after 1981, I had no mortgage to worry about, which was very freeing. And I had no cars to pay for,” he added.
 
Since 1991, the only federal income taxes Depp has paid was two years ago. His wife, Kathleen Kenney, was working and money was withheld from her salary. “So when tax time came the money was already with the government,” he said. “She’s antiwar, but she’s not willing to get into a lot of grief with the IRS over taxes.”
 
 
A Conscientious Stand
Depp would like to see other people follow his example.
 
“It would be nice if millions of people could take a conscientious stand against war and not fund it,” he said. “I felt that somehow this could grow into a movement that would impact government policy. But people are not willing to risk conflict and some reduction of their lifestyle….It’s a movement that just doesn’t spread. I’m a kind of disillusioned war resister.”
 
Over the years Depp presented a number of workshops about tax resistance. “People would say: ‘It’s great that you are doing that.’ But I couldn’t get other people to not pay their taxes.”
 
Depp spent three and a half years in the Navy and served in the Korean and Vietnam wars. He was never involved in fighting, he said.
 
Raised in Methodist and Presbyterian churches, Depp now belongs to the Society of Friends, a Christian denomination commonly called Quakers. “They support my view that war doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
 
Depp always took Christianity seriously but the messages about peace and turning the other cheek didn’t seem to fit with what he saw happening around him. “It looked to me like Jesus’ message was being compromised.”
 
“I feel war is turned to too quickly,” Depp said. “You don’t have to be a pacifist to see the war we are in right now is ludicrous. I thought the Vietnam War was ludicrous. No matter how bad it gets, we go on…. Our military budget is astounding.”

Alberta Lindsey spent 42 years as a newspaper reporter. Now a freelance writer in Richmond, she enjoys reading mysteries, traveling and photography.

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