War tax resistance 101: Tell us what you want to know!
Going live on IG with Lincoln Rice from NWTRCC on 1/27
Hello to the 5,403 hotties who subscribe to this newsletter! Thank you for being here.
In response to ICE’s murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, I’ve been seeing a lot of reels and TikToks about participating in a tax strike — the act of withholding income taxes to protest the government, also known as war tax resistance.
The guidance I’ve been seeing online is to withhold all taxes from your paycheck completely and deposit what you would have owed in taxes to a high-yield savings account. Then, when you’re hit with a tax bill in April, you can decide how much of it to pay back, if any.
It sounds like a good idea in theory… but you have to be a very disciplined saver for this to actually work.
War tax resistance isn’t new
Taxpayers have been doing this as early as 1846, and in larger numbers in the early 1970s, to protest the Vietnam War.
If you’re thinking of becoming a war tax resister, please remember that you don’t have to do this alone, and you can receive guidance from people who have been doing this waaay before it started trending on TikTok.
2026 will be my third year covering war tax resistance, and I want to hear your questions!
Drop your questions in the comments, or send your questions to hello@queerandtranswealth.org if you want to remain anonymous.
Next Tuesday, January 27, I’ll be going live on Instagram with Lincoln Rice from the National War Tax Resistance Committee (NWTRCC), which has been organizing war tax resisters since 1982. Lincoln has been a war tax resister himself since 1998 and has a bachelor’s degree in accounting.
Send in your questions and mark your calendars!
I’ll be posting a 2026 war tax resistance guide shortly after my live conversation with Lincoln.
This is so exciting! I’m curious as to how to handle tax resistance as a freelancer/small business owner. I have the advantage of taxes not coming directly out of my check, but when I pay my quarterly/yearly, how can I make sure it isn’t going to harmful places?
Cheers Leo, thanks for this great initiative!
I would love to understand the shape of outcomes that this could potentially create. Without considering the risk of "targeted" audits and penalties for folks (The IRS is part of the executive branch...) it seems worthwhile to quantify the cost of additional complexity may introduce.
Taxes are explicitly not my department for good reason, but here are some questions that come to mind:
If we imagine a hypothetical household with 100k in income that's currently filling taxes through turbotax or similar, what additional costs are introduced from seeking counsel or otherwise? What potential penalties come on the scene if one deliberately underpays? How good are individuals at managing large piles of cash meant for tax liabilities, and how often do they mess it up?
The example that comes to mind for me is freelancers, who often have to manage their own withholdings... and often f*** it up....
Sending good vibes your way --
Sloane