Top Tax Excuses: My religion prohibits me from paying taxes
Filed under: Tax
This post was written as part of a series on tax excuses that don't work.
How I wish that I could refuse to pay taxes because politicians aren't going to spend my money the way I want them to. But it just doesn't work that way. In exchange for living in the greatest country in the world, we have to pay income taxes and we elect representatives who spend (waste?) our money for us.
And although the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says that our government can't establish a religion or prohibit people from practicing their religion, this doesn't exempt anyone from taxes. Requiring the payment of income taxes does not equate to mandating the practice of a religion.
Taxpayers are allowed to have differing morals, values, and religions, but that doesn't get them out of paying taxes -- even if the use of the tax money is objectionable to them.
Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-26-2008 @ 3:08PM
tigerz76 said...
Unless the protestor of taxation is a priest within a registered religion and not using any of funds to sustain self--they are bound to taxation of income earned in the U.S. territories. The U.S. evaluates foremost was income earned and if so, "in our territory?" If yes to both you will have a hard time arguing against the U.S. government because you are within their domain.
Moving on, the government forms a consensus in multiple branches at the executive level. If the taxpayer has such a harsh view of a program then they must form a group to protest the branch(es) that they disfavor. Provided they are U.S. Citizen or Resident alien they can lobby for change.
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