On July 24 or 25th, 1846, Henry David Thoreau ran into the local tax collector, Sam Staples, who asked him to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes. Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the Mexican-American War and slavery, and he spent a night in jail because of this refusal. (The next day Thoreau was freed, over his protests, when his aunt paid his taxes.) The experience had a strong impact on Thoreau. In January and February of 1848, he delivered lectures “on The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government” explaining his tax resistance at the Concord Lyceum. Thoreau later revised these lectures into an essay entitled Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Disobedience) which was published in 1849.

Thoreau’s legendary essay Civil Disobedience, as well as his acting inspired many activists later to explore ways of acting in the field of taxes. War Tax Resistance is one of those: Some tax resisters refuse to pay all or a portion of the taxes due, but make an equivalent donation to charity or to other peace activist groups. In this way, they demonstrate that the intent of their resistance is not selfish and that they want to use a portion of their earnings to contribute to the common good.

For instance, Julia Butterfly Hill resisted about $150,000 in federal taxes, and donated that money to after school programs, arts and cultural programs, community gardens, programs for Native Americans, alternatives to imprisonment, and environmental protection programs. She said:

I actually take the money that the IRS says goes to them and I give it to the places where our taxes should be going. And in my letter to the IRS I said: “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.”

The National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund in USA works to legalize a form of conscientious objection to military taxation via redirection. Its mission statement says it “advocates for US federal legislation enabling conscientious objectors to war to have their federal income taxes directed to a special fund which could be used for non-military purposes only”.

Active Peace Tax Fund campaigns exist in coutries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.