Time for a peaceable revolution?

“If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.” 

The above quote is from 1849 Henry David Thoreau within his book Civil Disobedience.  He grappled with the governments support of the Mexican American war and the governments support of slavery.  His aunt even offered to pay the tax so he could avoid jail time.  He still refused out of principle as it being paid by another would still defeat the purpose of the protest.

As of this morning the President Trump has threatened all citizens rights to peacefully protest by attempting to punish funding to colleges and students at those colleges.  The threat from the president was sent early morning via his Truth Social platform.  This is a direct attack on 1st amendment rights once again.

There has been rumblings on various social media platforms about what can be done as a citizen in the face of this aggression from the oval office.  One such option is in line with Henry David Thoreau which is to not pay your federal income taxes.  This would involve either declaring your tax status as exempt or declaring an abnormally large number of  dependents to drop your paid federal tax to nothing.

There is risk to this due to underpayment penalties on quarterly estimated taxes.  the penalty is normally interest and about 0.5% of the underpaid taxes.  Though as Thomas Jefferson said  “It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.”