Tax Letters and a Reply

[Ed: The following letters have been slightly edited for reasons of space.
Perhaps it's time for someone to volunteer to produce a Tax Redirectors
Newsletter!]


To: The Deputy Commissioner of Taxation
Enclosed is a cheque for 90% of my taxation for the year l990-91.  The
remaining 10%, (the percentage which would be allotted for military
expenditure) I am sending to the Peace and Development Foundation ....

I do this because of the revulsion I feel as a result of the Gulf War with
its slaughter, continuing pollution and suffering ....

I appreciate the need of governments for money to carry out their functions,
and I willingly pay my share towards social needs, aid to victims of
disaster, environment improvement and normal administration.

But I do not want any of my earnings to be used to promote war or to
encourage the exhibition and sale of sophisticated weaponry as is being
planned in AIDEX 1991 in Canberra this November.

It was ... inexcusable of the Government to send military components to Iraq,
and ... New Guinea ....  It is quite inexcusable for the Government's
military expenditure to have been 8970 million dollars this financial year
(i.e. over 24 million a day) when we are not under threat of war, and while
so many Australians are living in poverty, while thousands are homeless,
while hospitals, education, public transport and other social services are
under-funded and while millions of people overseas are starving.

Our taxes should be used to construct and improve life, not to destroy and
cause suffering.
Yours faithfully,
Alfreida Booth, 18-Apr-1991
39 Warner Street, Essendon VIC 3040
 

To: The Treasurer
The $150 I have withheld has been paid into the Peace and Development
Foundation to be held in trust until legislation is passed to allow
conscientious objectors the human right to pay their full taxes without
violating their conscience.  The right to conscientious objection to
participating in the military is recognised by the following treaties
Australia has ratified: The Universal Declaration of Human rights, The
International Covenant of Human and Political Rights and the United Nations
Declaration On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Intolerance And of
Discrimination based on religion Or Belief.

As you may know a bill called the Peace Tax Trust Fund Bill ... is still
tabled in the Senate. This Bill would allow conscientious objectors the right
to pay the military portion of their tax into the Peace Tax Trust Fund
administered by trustees appointed by the Minister of Finance and the
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. ...

On the other hand it would be easier and simpler for the Government to amend
the Taxation Act.  The Australian Lawyers for Nuclear Disarmament drafted the
following amendment in 1986 with the help of Professor Yuri Grbich of the
University of NSW... 

Amend the Income Tax Assessment Act by inserting the following as Section
25B:
(1) Any taxpayer liable to taxation under Section 17 of this Act may by
notice in writing, delivered to the Commissioner not later than the date of
return required under this act, exercise an option to have the determined
percentage of that taxpayers taxable income designated peace tax.
(2) The determined percentage is to he calculated by the Commissioner at the
end of each financial year and is to be that portion of the Commonwealth
budget spent on arms and related purposes for the preceding year.
(3) Where an amount is designated peace tax in accordance with sub-section
(1), the Commissioner shall pay that amount into a specially designated fund,
to be administered by the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the purpose of
furthering peace in a non-military manner.

I look forward to your response to my letter.
Yours for Peace,
Jan de Voogd, 27-Apr-1991
5/26 East Crescent Street
McMahon's Point NSW 2060


To: Ms Janet Mayer 
[Ed: Janet Mayer's letters to the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation appeared in
NVT #16 Aug/Sep 1990]

Thank you for your letter of 10 August 1990 concerning the way in which your
taxes are used.  The delay in replying is regretted.

While I can appreciate your concerns, the tax system does not allow for the
distribution of taxes according to an individual's personal beliefs.

There have been numerous proposals to ear-mark income tax revenue received
from taxpayers for specific purposes, however successive Governments have
rejected such proposals. Within the mandate given to it, the Government lists
its expenditure priorities on their merits and in line with competing claims
from all sources.  To allocate funds on the basis of particular taxpayers'
preferences or beliefs, could eventually lead to a serious misallocation of
resources.

I trust the foregoing is of assistance.  Thank you again for writing.
Yours sincerely,
Bob McMullan 
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, 7-May-1991 


[Ed: It seems to me that if Tax Redirection is to have any chance of becoming
legal (any time soon) it will have to be restricted to "bona fide"
conscientious objectors. I don't think an amendment which starts "Any
taxpayer..." has much chance of success. We must stress that what we want is
merely the completion (not even the extension) of the rights of COs to 
redirect their capital as well as their labour (capital is just stored
labour). And we should be prepared to establish our bona fides in whatever
ways are currently required in regard to military service. Can someone tell
us what those are? Dave Keenan]