I have an idea. I don't know if it's been brought up before, so I'll apologize in advance if so.

[Farmgirl1961]

Donald Trump was so proud that he hadn't paid his taxes. I've seen a lot of Facebook posts that ordinary citizens shouldn't pay taxes if Donald Trump doesn't pay his. One idea.

So here you have Donald Trump trying to shut down the ACA, defund Planned Parenthood, shut down NPR, along with a host of other changes. So -- can we, the people, with hold our taxes and use them to fund the causes near and dear to our heart. Can we, the people, somehow use our tax dollars to keep critical services going?

Maybe a sky in the pie dream, but I would like to know from a legal perspective what we, the people can do -- and then figure out how we, the people can organize to get it done.

[rzemanfl]

1. Most people have their taxes withheld by employers. n/t

[leftstreet]

2. Rich people and corporations already do that

'withhold' their taxes to fund the causes near and dear to their pocketbooks

The average working class person has his/her taxes withheld prior to getting paid

[Farmgirl1961]

3. Yes -- so more for those who are self-employed, who don't have their taxes automatically taken out.

Or -- if there are any legal ways for which we can "refuse" to pay our taxes, or have our taxes go to specific causes. Any legal tax experts out there?

[napi21]

4. Unfortunately, YOU can't just ignore your taxes. There are several reasons why you wouldn't want to

I'm going to assume you work for someone and aren't self-employed. That means taxes are WITHELD from your paycheck. The only way to get any of that money back a as refund is to file your tax return. Believe it or not, most people do get a refund. Then there's the punishment if you don't file. Assume you find that you owe $$ instead of getting refund. They WILL find you, sooner or later, and penalties start to accumulate from the day the return was due. The total penalty for failure to file and pay can eventually add up to 47.5% (22.5% late filing, 25% late payment) of the tax owed. Interest, compounded daily, is also charged on any unpaid tax from the due date of the return until the date of payment.

An accountant didn't file his taxes for 4 years and was sentenced to prison.

The Con DID file his taxes, he just made enough money to be able to take advantage of several quite profitable loop holes. We avg. Joes don't have any loop holes that we qualify for, unless you want to consider home mtg. interest and real estate taxes.

We can protest, call your reps & sens, but not paying taxes is not a good idea.

[NightWatcher]

5. My guess is he didn't pay because he's in severe debt

I've heard all kinds of numbers that he may be in as much as 300 million in the negative.

[Farmgirl1961]

6. The fact of the matter is that I work for an employer, pay taxes, do my tax forms and get a refund

And it's not that I'm in favor of not paying my taxes...What I'm trying to figure out is how we, the people, can use whatever leverage we have (as we do pay taxes) do prevent catastrophic cut-backs. Yes, I'm all for writing letters and signing petitions and all of that, but what else. Is there anything in the tax code that gives us tax payers any kind of leverage?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_resistance