The Problem With Paying Taxes

The Catholic Woman Who Resisted the IRS

I do not have a social security number, so I am unable to pay income taxes.

I’m not a typical sovereign citizen¹. I have a driver’s licence (expired), passport, bank account, and I’ve traveled outside of the country. I’ve voted to prove that I can, but I’d be alright with repealing the 19th².

Although I have had brief interludes as a “libertarian” and “anarchist”, I’m not really rebellious by nature. There are many “controversial” hills I die on everyday, but I stop when the green light is yellow. I don’t shoplift. I do whatever I must to decrease the odds of interacting with law enforcement. I consider others first and think of myself last. I don’t mind being called a radical for religious reasons, but I’m not really into most conspiracy theories. I endeavor to turn the other cheek and offer up my coat when it’s asked for.

I’m a pacifist at heart. The battle I wage is for peace, and my protest is for the sake of charity. I walk cities barefoot in order to remember this land, even the cement, belongs to God. I don’t wear a seat-belt because I trust God’s Providence, but also I prefer the 35mph backroads.

And I don’t pay income tax because I do not support abortion or war.

I understand the IRS is a mighty beast, and many have no choice but to hand over their dues. But I am unable to do so³. I have been raised in an alternate universe, the original American timeline. Why would I forfeit my heritage to pay taxes?

Yet, some would.

A reader sent me a Substack a while back of a woman named Lore Wilbert.⁴ She wrote an essay about her decision to get a social security number to pay income tax. She claimed it was pro-people, and that it was a privilege with immense returns and benefits.

She prefaced her argument with, “I was raised to believe that tax evasion wasn’t a shame, it was the goal,” then went on to say:

Something about this never sat right with me. I remember being a small child watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood on PBS, and hearing the tagline that it was “Made possible by viewers like you.” Something in me bloomed whenever I heard that (Still! Whenever I hear it!). The thought that I could somehow be a part of making that possible, it stunned me. This was around the time my parents and siblings began calling me a “bleeding heart liberal,” which in our circles was as bad as being a devil worshiper or a precursor to a life of wanton shame and whoring. I should have known from then on that I was destined to pay taxes.

Any decent person wants to be a part of the thing that brings about change. But in our desire to be useful and neighborly, we can sometimes become pawns swept up by propaganda. Consider the Hitler Youth. They saw themselves as heroes. They felt destined to make Germany great again, and they were willing to sacrifice their lives for this noble cause.

The Hitler Youth wanted Hitler to tell them, “This was made possible because of people like you.”

Is it fair to compare taxpayers to the Hitler Youth, a group who were complicit in the murder of six million Jews?

What are you endorsing when you file your taxes? How many unborn babies and foreigners will die because of the money you earned? An average man’s taxes this last year funded ninety seconds of the budget we send to Israel for their war efforts.

I might not complain if I had representation or say in the matter. I’d be thrilled to see my tax dollars used to make education and medical care more accessible to everyone. Instead, American dollars are hard at work killing babies and sacrificing American soldiers to fill the pockets of your favorite (and not so-favorite) politicians. The idea that I could support the war or abortion sickens me.

And I’m not the first to think this way.

The Woman Who Fought the IRS and Won

Catholic Worker Farm, Tivoli, New York 1968. Dorothy Day bedroom and office

Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker, felt about income tax⁵ similarly to how I do. Not only did she not register her organization as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit claiming the secular government had no jurisdiction to decide who could or could not perform works of mercy, she refused to pay federal income tax as a conscientious objector.

Her values stemmed from first principles, as proved when she returned $3,579.39 to the New York City Treasury when the city mailed a check for interest on land they seized from the Catholic Worker via eminent domain because she believed usury was immoral. However, one’s religious values get them only so far in Caesar’s democracy. At some point the IRS comes knocking if they think they’re owed money, and they aren’t interested in having a cup of tea or finding compromise.

When they demanded their “dues” in the winter of 1972, Dorothy Day was ready. She would not pay, and although she was 74 years old, she was willing to spend time in jail if she must.

She made the case public, and various news outlets including the New York Times covered the story. Dorothy Day was well loved. She was a woman of conviction, who loved God and hated war, and who spent her time serving the poor and working-class. The people of New York City were scandalized, and there was an uproar. The IRS realized that although they had the legal right to prosecute Dorothy Day, it was not in their best interest.

The IRS dropped the case. Dorothy Day won, with God on her side. Now there is talk that this courageous tax resister may be canonized as a Saint.

Remember The Boston Tea Party

Dorothy Day was not the first to protest war taxes. The history of noncompliance with war tax is woven tightly in the tapestry of the American Ethos. To this day, Americans are known for their love of coffee, the replacement beverage for tea after early Americans resisted taxes in Boston. The first of my relatives to set foot on American soil arrived sometime in 1620 wearing chains because he did not pay his taxes.

Others, too, have fought the good fight, refusing to give Caesar the means to murder:

Larry Bassett, Ammon Hennacy, Henry David Thoreau, Ernest and Marion Bromley, Joan Baez, and Julia “Butterfly” Hill are just a few notable examples of individuals not easily swept up by propaganda. They, too, wanted to contribute to the world around them — but they didn’t want to be responsible for their neighbors’ deaths.

Among them were Quakers, Mennonites, Catholics, and poets. Many of them spent time in jail, choosing to lay down their lives rather than fund holocausts and nuclear war.

Most of these people had social security numbers and were technically required to pay taxes regardless of religious beliefs. Others never entered the system, yet living in a world ruled by the system, they were still not exempt from time spent in jail.

Some chose to work only for cash, never pursuing wealth or notoriety, in order to “evade” paying war taxes. Others didn’t think of themselves as tax resisters. They sent their money to charities as a “tax redirection” and wrote to the IRS declaring “I’m not refusing to pay my taxes. I’m actually paying them but I’m paying them where they belong because you refuse to do so.”

Many like to remind those who oppose taxes that Jesus commanded us to give Caesar what is Caesar’s⁶. They’ll argue that it’s not for us to worry about how “Caesar” spends his money.

But we no longer live in Pagan Rome. We have made disciples of all nations⁷ as Jesus commanded, and even if America claims to be a “secular” government, its moral code is of Christian origin.

We’ve Christianized Caesar and engraved “In God We Trust” on our coins. Our tax dollars are no longer pagan coins — they belong to God. When we use them for eugenics, abortion, or war we blaspheme God’s name because His name is on our money.

This makes us complicit in murder when we voluntarily pay our taxes.

Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.

1 Timothy 5:22

What You Can Do Now

If you’re not willing to spend time in jail, you don’t have much choice but to keep paying your taxes. It’s not my place to judge, especially if you have a family. However, this doesn’t mean you’re completely helpless. You can give your children a choice by not getting them social security numbers when they are born. Don’t make them fund future wars unless they want to.

Keep them out of the system — let them decide when they are older if they want a social security number. Let them choose how their money will be spent.

Perhaps the IRS will still come knocking on their doors, but if your children choose to live a simple, cash-based life and never register themselves, they will escape the guilt of bloodshed.

Maybe they’ll grow up and decide they want to pay taxes. Maybe they agree that most wars America has waged are justified. This all might be so — but in the meantime, you can let your children decide what kind of neighbor they want to be.

If your children already have socials, some families have found success in never activating their children’s socials by never using them. I know several young adults who have done everything I’ve done — gotten driver’s licenses, passports, and bank accounts — without filling in a social security number even though they had one at birth simply because their parents early on decided to never use the number for anything.

This might require some sacrifices on your part as the parent, especially when it comes time to filing your taxes. It might mean paying a little more tax (or working for cash) since you won’t be able to claim your children as dependents⁸.

Nobody is claiming the costs won’t be high. But those who have children are already aware of this. Only you can determine what you’re willing to give up in order to give your children a better future.

These essays are free to the public. However, if you enjoy this publication, consider buying a coffee for The Girl Who Doesn’t Exist!

1. I’m not a sovereign citizen at all. Read this.

2. It might be the best way to put an end to abortion.

3. Technically all US citizens are required to pay tax, but there is no way for me to do so since I am unnumbered. I’m also unsure whether I’m legally a citizen by tax law. I probably am. Nevertheless, I don’t make enough money for it to matter. Added note: readers have pointed out I might be eligible for an ITIN. I am not (neither are the Schwarzentruber Amish), because my Passport verifies I am a US Citizen, and I have filed religious exemption papers for the SSN.

4. I share this blog in part because I once might’ve written something like Lore Wilbert’s essay. I nearly got a social security number, too, thinking it would be the only way to live a purposeful life. It’s not easy to disentangle oneself from the stupidity espoused by a majority of Sovereign Citizens. Children raised in those homes have it tough — there is little information for us. And so I hold no condemnation for those who chose another way. I nearly did it myself.

5. I source most of my information from “Dorothy Day: Selected Writings” edited by Robert Ellsberg. You can also read about Dorothy Day and her resistance to taxes, interest, and war at Catholicworker.org.

6. Matthew 22:21

7. Matthew 28:19

8. It use to be possible to claim no numbered dependents when filing taxes, but President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” on July 4, 2025 which now requires all dependents to have a SSN.