Denver Post

12/29/05

Peace activist Bill Sulzman in Colorado Springs protests the war in Iraq by refusing to pay the federal excise tax of about 50 cents on his monthly phone bill. Sulzman also recruits others who are against US military involvement in Iraq to stop paying the tax, which was first adopted in 1898 to pay for the Spanish- American War. The tax raises about $5 billion a year, which activists say goes to fund war efforts. The Internal Revenue Service won't confirm that the money goes exclusively to the military but instead says it goes for general fund expenditures, including military spending. 'It's kind of entry-level active resistance,' Sulzman said. 'Phone companies don't cut off the phones. They don't have the leverage.' Nationally, an estimated 10,000 phone customers don't pay the tax, said Ruth Benn, a spokeswoman for the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee in New York. With many Americans questioning the rationale for the Iraq war, the number who don't pay appears to be growing, said Betty Ball, a spokeswoman at the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder...

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_3348908


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp