Chicago attorney Rachel Cohen owes more than $8,000 in federal income taxes — but has intentionally left that balance unpaid.
“I’m not paying my federal income tax this year,” Cohen said in a widely viewed TikTok video from March 2 about her decision.
The 31-year-old community organizer filed her federal tax return, which shows a balance due of $8,830, according to a tax document reviewed by CNBC. But Cohen said she deliberately chose to withhold payment of that bill as a protest against immigration detention, including ICE facilities, and U.S. strikes on Iran launched without congressional approval.
While voicing resistance to taxes is legal, refusing to pay taxes owed can violate federal law and lead to serious penalties.
“It’s completely OK to be unhappy and be dissatisfied with our government,” said Josh Youngblood, owner of The Youngblood Group, a Dallas-based tax firm. “But not paying taxes, or engaging in tax fraud or evasion, is not the answer.”
In addition to penalties and interest that start accruing immediately on their past-due balances, tax protesters can face “long-term consequences,” such as wage garnishment, a tax lien on property or even jail time, according to Michele Frank, associate professor of accountancy at Miami University. Federal courts have a long track record of siding with the Internal Revenue Service in cases involving tax resistance, routinely dismissing these claims as frivolous and, in some instances, imposing additional penalties.
Cohen told CNBC she is fully aware of the potential risks and that speaking openly about the decision could attract additional scrutiny from federal authorities.
Her protest is directed at federal spending priorities, not taxation itself, Cohen said. She paid about $3,000 in Illinois state taxes, according to a tax document reviewed by CNBC, and said she sees value in how those dollars support state and local services.
Cohen said her decision is personal and not something she is encouraging others to do, but hopes it pushes people to reflect on whether their actions match their beliefs.
Renewed interest in tax resistance
Cohen’s protest follows a long tradition of so-called war tax resistance, in which people withhold some or all of their federal taxes to oppose government policies.
“It’s been going on pretty much as long as we’ve been a country,” Frank said.
Typically, there’s an uptick in tax protesting — with filers holding back some or all of their tax payments — when the U.S. government engages in a war or other “controversial” activities, she said.
That appears to be happening again, according to the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, an educational nonprofit founded in the early 1980s by activists connected to the anti-Vietnam War movement.
The group’s website had averaged about 40,000 unique visitors a year until the war in Gaza began in 2023, according to Lincoln Rice, the organization’s coordinator. In January 2026 alone, traffic surged to more than 110,000 visitors.
“I don’t think anyone’s making the decision to practice war tax resistance based on one single action,” Rice told CNBC. Instead, major political events can become the “final straw” that prompts some people to explore the tactic.
Rice said the organization does not encourage people to refuse to pay taxes but instead provides information about how the practice works and its legal risks.
Those approaches vary. Some protesters file their tax returns but refuse to pay the balance owed, while others deliberately pay less than they owe, Rice said. Some also choose not to file at all, which can expose them to steeper penalties.
Ruth Benn, a longtime war tax protester and volunteer counselor with the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, said she has followed one of the more common approaches: filing her tax returns but refusing to pay the federal income tax she owes. She currently owes about $27,000 in federal taxes, including interest and penalties accumulated over multiple years, according to a summary of her IRS account reviewed by CNBC.
Benn said over the years she has regularly received IRS letters “with interest and penalties adding up” and met with the agency in 2009 related to her tax debt.
She said she has had small state refunds seized and some government rebates withheld. “I think around 1990 they took $800 from a bank account,” she said. “Otherwise, I don’t recall more bank account seizures, and I never had money taken from a paycheck.”
Benn said she began withholding payment decades ago after becoming involved in anti-war activism, and that she sends the IRS a letter each year explaining why she is withholding payment. She said she is open with the IRS about not paying, rather than trying to hide income.
However, failing to pay federal income taxes is still illegal. Those who don’t pay could still face penalties, interest and collection actions, and in some cases, willful failure to pay taxes can be charged as a criminal offense.
Separately, certain tax positions can trigger more severe penalties. The IRS warned in a 2022 brief that taxpayers relying on “frivolous” arguments to avoid taxes — such as claiming tax returns are voluntary, or disputing what counts as income, among others — can face additional civil penalties and, in more serious cases, criminal prosecution, including felony charges tied to tax evasion or false filings. The agency cites multiple cases in which courts have ruled against tax protesters.
Benn said people considering tax resistance should understand that the consequences can be unexpected, with the IRS sometimes pursuing collection years later.
“It’s unpredictable,” she said. “That’s the hard part of this particular anti-war protest. You don’t know what’s going to happen when.”
Consequences for tax protesters
While some Americans object to funding certain government programs, moral or religious beliefs don’t exempt taxpayers from paying federal income taxes, according to the IRS.
When you don’t file a return, there’s a “failure to file” penalty, levied at 5% of your taxes due for each month or partial month the filing is late and capped at 25%. The agency also charges interest on penalties.
Eventually, the IRS can prepare a “substitute for return” on your behalf, without the credits and deductions you’re owed, said Youngblood, who is also an enrolled agent, which is a tax license to practice before the IRS.
After that, you can expect a “90-day letter” with the agency’s proposed assessment of your balance before they start collections. This could include refund offsets, garnishing wages, seizing property and other activities.
There’s also a “failure to pay” penalty — 0.5% of your balance for each month or partial month the filing is late, capped at 25% — but other penalties can be substantially higher, Youngblood said.
For example, if you file a return without enough information to calculate the correct tax liability, you could be subject to a $5,000 civil penalty for what’s known as a “frivolous tax return,” according to the Internal Revenue Code.
Alternatively, some filers could see a 75% civil fraud penalty if the agency believes the underpayment is due to fraud rather than negligence.
There’s also no statute of limitations for a “false or fraudulent return,” according to the Internal Revenue Code. For those cases, the IRS could pursue filers indefinitely.
In some cases, failure to pay taxes could result in jail time. During fiscal year 2024, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported original sentencing for some 360 federal criminal cases involving tax fraud, up 11% from fiscal year 2020. The 2024 cases included tax evasion and willful failure to file a return, supply information or pay tax, among other issues.