Dear Government

April 16, 2009


Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service Center
Fresno, CA 93888-0102

Franchise Tax Board
P.O. Box 942867
Sacramento, CA 94267-0008


To Whom It May Concern,

Enclosed you will find a Payment Voucher for my 2008 tax return, which I filed electronically. However, instead of paying the monies enumerated on said vouchers for state and federal income taxes I am using the precise amounts to fund groups dedicated to peace and justice.

I cannot pay federal income tax in good conscience as more than half that money is spent on Pentagon weapons programs and for destroying people around the globe and terrifying the nation. Nor can I pay state income tax as it is spent on prisons instead of schools.

Though the purpose of the tax system may have been at one time to redistribute the wealth downwards, the current tax system concentrates wealth in the hands of the rich (they after all have found many ways—both legal and illegal—of evading payment of their share). This requires the middle, working and lower classes to fund wars of aggression and ever-dwindling social services at home, education and healthcare being only two of the most egregious examples.

When a large majority of the population has been for years in favor of a universal healthcare system (Single Payer) and an administration elected purportedly to bring change to this country will simply not consider a single payer system, then it is obvious that the government is not ruled by the people, but by the monied interests.

Increased inequality, wars of aggression, the prison-industrial complex, the deterioration of “education” and “healthcare” in this country is not what I am going to fund with the value of my labor.

Sincerely,
Michael Borucke

“For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy America reigns without a rival.”
–Frederick Douglas