Hang Up On War!

Each month, many of us unknowingly contribute to the war policies we resolutely oppose — because there is a 3% federal excise tax on local telephone service that helps to pay for them.

This website was set up in 2003 as a campaign against the war in Iraq, but telephone tax resistance has a long history in the peace movement. You can find more information on this history by clicking on the "About the Campaign" button. In 2005, due to lawsuits against the IRS, the federal excise tax on long distance service was repealed, so today fewer people are affected by the excise tax, which is only applied to local-only (usually landline) phone service.

Thousands of people continue to Hang Up On War! as another way to strengthen their nonviolent resistance to the “endless war” policy of the U.S. government while reducing the flow of their money to war. Hang Up On War! encourages participants to take their resisted phone tax money and give it to groups working to heal the wounds of war.

The sponsoring organizations of Hang Up On War! have opposed the war against Iraq, the ongoing military occupation, and an “endless” war on terrorism, which violates human rights and international law and has cost us hundreds of billions of dollars. Our states and cities face unprecedented deficits and cutbacks of vital services and programs while these wars rage on.

Hang Up On War! calls on individuals to refuse to pay their federal phone tax, an act of civil disobedience which sends a message to Washington that says “Not With Our Money.”

Find out what’s involved with the information on this website, and join in this important act of resistance to war.