Peace tax campaigners in the UK Photo: Photo copyright Conscience UK. Used with permission.
A very human right
Derek Brett examines the right to pay a peace tax rather than a tax for military purposes
Let me tell you the story of a young man who grew up in Switzerland. In Switzerland, all male citizens are, at the age of nineteen or twenty, called up for about three months’ military training. Thereafter they keep their rifle and their uniform at home and at intervals until their early thirties have to do a further fortnight of military service. Our young man was no exception. But a year or two later he had back problems, and the army doctor exempted him from further military service. The problems were treated and he continued playing tennis. At this he was quite successful. However the army did not rush to review its original decision. Perhaps the fact that Swiss men who for any reason do not perform military service in a particular year are instead required to pay an extra three per cent ‘military tax’ on their income may have had something to do with it. To the Swiss military, three per cent of Roger Federer’s income is worth far more than having him patrol the mountains for a couple of weeks! In the UK and most other countries today we are almost all Roger Federers. Unlike the Swiss, we are no longer conscripted into the armed forces. They find it far more useful to have us earn money, which they can then ‘conscript’ as taxes to pay for their expensive weaponry. But others do not make the linkage as explicit as do the Swiss.
