Honestly - set your paycheck withholding to zero, hope others do the same to defund the government… and when tax day comes next year double check if the IRS still exists before submitting your payment.
I am required to pay taxes to the US government, not elon musk running a fraudulent government agency, why should I pay?
Submitted 13 hours ago by Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
xmunk@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
That’s quite the hope to risk prison for on someone else’s advice.
Clbull@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
I don’t think you’ll want to risk prison time, especially when you risk being locked up alongside MS-13 gang members.
Trump has agreed a deal with Nayib Bukele that will effectively allow him to deport illegal immigrants of any nationality to El Salvador and transfer US prisoners to their facilities.
foggy@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
100% doing this.
I’ll be an old man telling 16 year olds to withokd 0 and create a savings account for tax day sounding like a depression era grandma telling you to reuse the trash bags.
Takumidesh@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Just so you know, you will likely face underpayment penalties doing this.
I suggest you avoid giving 16 year olds tax advice.
blipcast@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
This is bad advice. The annual income you report on your taxes indicates how much you should have been setting aside throughout the year. Failing to do so can result in fines. There are exceptions for when your income increases part way through a year, but if you do what you describe, they WILL ding you for that.
protist@mander.xyz 5 hours ago
You misunderstand how tax withholding works. When you sign up for tax withholding, the IRS gets a portion of your wage each paycheck and sets it aside for you to cover your tax bill the following year. The IRS is only holding that money for you during that time before your annual bill is due, in what amounts to you loaning the government money interest-free. Many people do not withhold taxes and just pay it all at once. And yes, at this point, whether the IRS will exist as a functioning entity in 2026 is a legitimate question, so not giving them a free loan might be a good idea
xmunk@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
You can underwithold income and payroll taxes through the year. There is no need to have periodic withholding it is just a convenience for budgeting.
The thing you cannot do if you don’t declare standard withholding is fall short or pay late (without a qualified extension). If you’re unable to pay the taxes you declined to pay through the year they will go after you. And if you’re late paying you will pay pretty significant interest on your owed amount.
plz1@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Most employers don’t give you that option.
protist@mander.xyz 5 hours ago
If you’re an employee, you should have filled out a W4 when you started your job to indicate your tax withholding. You are able to submit a new W4 at any time
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 5 hours ago
Because the IRS doesn’t come for the wealthy who cheat. They come for the typical who cheat. And you know the IRS under Trump is gonna squeeze the lower classes like a beast.
Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Weird definition of the word cheat
ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
Does it matter who has the monopoly on violence, if you don’t? You pay taxes because if you refuse to for long enough, burly men with guns will eventually take your stuff and lock you up.
Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Why aren’t burly men coming for musk?
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
You seem to think there is some kind of cosmic balance.
There is not.
Musk in charge, you aren’t. That’s why he gets to do what he wants and you don’t. And it sucks.
ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 12 hours ago
Why aren’t burly men coming for musk?
He has the support of the people with a monopoly on violence.
How can my neighbor sit by and let it happen to me
The fact that your neighbor can’t do anything is what makes it a monopoly.
marshadow@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Because not paying your taxes will draw attention from what remains of the system. I’m not thrilled about paying taxes to the dead and looted corpse of our government, but it’s better to stay under the radar.
Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Stay under the radar for what? Praying I’m not next? So I can continue an unfulfilled life as a wage slave and blink out of existence having learned or felt nothing of importance?
marshadow@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
For being a low-key menace. www.cia.gov/static/…/SimpleSabotage.pdf
sexy_peach@feddit.org 12 hours ago
Because you’ll get bonked
Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
We are all getting bonked. Our future is being robbed right out from under us.
sexy_peach@feddit.org 12 hours ago
Yes, but also always has been. Times have been bad before and it wasn’t ideal a few years ago either. Keep your head low and push in the right direction, like many good people have done before us.
artificialfish@programming.dev 13 hours ago
I have money and I’m not comfortable in prison. That’s why.
Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
They can’t put 350 million people in prison. What good is your money in a country of lawlessness? When you pay the thugs to not rob you, what will be left for yourself?
artificialfish@programming.dev 13 hours ago
When you get all 350 million people to riot I’ll be on your side. But laying low is a more likely to succeed option. This country has never been fair or politically good. I prepared for this, because I could see it coming.
shadowhawk0000@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Legit point.
over_clox@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Just throw away all your money and live like half the rest of us, broke. If you have no money, you have nothing to tax.
Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
I am broke, no doubt, but they take the money from checks.
over_clox@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
You get a check? Like, those paper payments?
I haven’t found one bank or establishment that’ll cash any of my former employer’s checks in over a decade. They tell me the companies I worked for aren’t registered as trusted employers/check issuers.
My past employers all had to cash their own damn checks and hand me cash money. And that’s largely why I quit repairing computers, tablets and phones back in 2017, apparently all the tech companies here are shady, to the point even their own banks don’t trust them.
Wish I knew what it was like to have an honest employer…
Blaze@sopuli.xyz 13 hours ago
chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
You are free to do whatever you want to do, however, there are consequences to your actions. If you believe that the US government will collapse and there will be no one to start garnishing your wages when you don’t report your taxes, then by all means, stop paying them.
Your reaction is “reactionary”, though. You come across as though you are looking for a reason to not pay taxes, and you think you’ve found one. Instead, you should be looking for ways to correct the problems you see. If you don’t like Musk, then find ways to undermine him. Refusal to pay your taxes isn’t it, though.
Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
There is a whole government infrastructure in place to prevent musk which he has usurped. Why is it on me, and me alone?
chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
You are giving false equivalency arguments. You are equating Musk’s abilities to some direct link in your taxes, as though the 25% you pay each paycheck is funding him. It isn’t. It is still funding garbage collection, national parks, welfare programs, and other critical infrastructure. Your taxes haven’t started going to new places. They are doing the exact same thing they have always done. You are being reactionary, and it comes off like you are either 15 years old and just learning about taxation, or 55 and learning about Libertarianism. Get a grip on yourself, realise that there is still work to be done, and being an infant about this shit isn’t doing anything but wasting people’s fucking time. If you don’t want to pay taxes, don’t. But don’t lie and say it’s about Musk. It’s selfishness. It’s because you can’t manage what money you have, and you think that little bit extra is going to make a difference. It won’t, though. You’ll still be broke because you spent all your money on weed and black light posters.
distantsounds@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
You are not alone. You have the ability to make positive change. If you would wish to have a larger impact, organize, find strength with those in your community and it will grow.
kjira@lemmy.today 13 hours ago
You’re definitely not the only person proposing your course of action. By the way, it would be silly for me to refrain from filing taxes since I’m likely to get a small refund. From your own reasoning, why would I want the government to keep my money even longer interest free? In that case, I absolutely should file my taxes to take the money away from them.
thefartographer@lemm.ee 13 hours ago
Because of everyone does the thing with all the might necessary to do it themselves, then together they will do the biggest thing that’s ever been done.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 12 hours ago
Of course if that happens your dollars won’t be worth anything anyway.