Carlos Stewart, photo via NWTRCC
Another man (hot on Frank Donnelly‘s heels), who had privately resisted payment of federal income tax, for reasons of conscience in opposition to war, has recently been prosecuted and sent to prison. With belated serendipity, Carl (Carlos) Steward learned about the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) too late to avail himself of the experience, knowledge and counselling available, but not too late for the positive publicity and moral support that this network and clearinghouse for conscientious military tax refusal is well-prepared to offer. On Hiroshima Day, August 6, Stewart reported to the federal prison camp on Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama to serve a two-year prison sentence for failure to file and filing false returns. Ruth Benn, co-ordinator of NWTRCC writes about Carlos, who edited the recently released documentary Death and Taxes for NWTRCC:
It was while he was working on Death and Taxes last fall that Carlos was indicted by a Grand Jury on charges of tax evasion and providing false statements. There is no connection to his work on the NWTRCC film; the case had begun earlier in 2009 out of a complicated case with a former employer in West Virginia.
“There are real pitfalls to doing it the way I did it,” he says. “Not being aware of war tax resistance is a detriment for people trying to do the right thing but not knowing how to do it. I also learned the importance of being transparent about your resistance. The film is very educational for people and shows a better method for doing what you’re doing.”
In February 2010 Steward pleaded guilty to filing false income tax returns for 2002 and 2003 and failing to file returns for 2000 and 2001. On June 30, 2010, he was sentenced in federal court in Charleston, West Virginia, to two years in prison.
Read the full story at nwtrcc.org