Do We Still Have to Pay Taxes With DOGE Running Amok?

Do we all still have to pay federal taxes if DOGE is deviating from what Congress authorized and appropriated in the budget? Or have we reached the “taxation without representation” phase of this oligarchy-in-the-making? —Fuck This Shit

I often begin my columns with an off-topic joke. Today, I’m promoting a theory from pundit Kara Swisher, who suggests Elon Musk’s sudden interest in public service is less about streamlining government than about getting his hands on the government’s data. Tech giants are running out of data to train their AIs, so tapping into everything the government knows about you and me will give Musk’s AI an edge. It will also, of course, create opportunities for many new and exotic forms of Orwellian oppression. Lol, amirite? Pass it on.

Anyway, the good news is that the path of tax resistance is well trodden. The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, for example, has been providing instruction for conscientious tax resisters like you since 1982. The bad news is that they’ve been leading an anti-war tax revolt for 43 years, and one can’t help noticing that war has not exactly been stamped out.

Still, nwtrccc.org is a good resource for those interested in this strategy. They suggest that salaried workers begin by increasing deductions on your W-4 until your employer stops withholding on your behalf. Come tax time you’ll owe the full amount; respond with (a) a principled letter refusing to pay on moral grounds, (b) the first of many extension requests, starting a Trumpian campaign of eternal stalling, or (c) a tax return so rife with fanciful deductions that you don’t owe anything.

Given that there may not even be any IRS agents by next April, it’s entirely possible that you’ll get away with this. But will Trump be smart enough to see what you’re doing as a threat? You and I know the regime starts to crumble the minute Social Security checks start bouncing, but do they? It’s like fighting a rabid wolverine by threatening it with a bond-rating downgrade.

Finally, you have to wonder if matching their “What can I get away with?” mentality with one of your own merely accelerates the breakdown of the rules-based social order. Do we really want to rush toward a society where people only follow the law at gunpoint? I suppose we’ll find out—right after we change the national motto from “E Pluribus Unum” to “You and What Army?

Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.