A far-left activist who co-founded a grassroots organization that seeks to push the Democratic Party to adopt more progressive positions has received millions of views on TikTok videos claiming she will not pay her federal income taxes for 2025 due to her political opposition to the Trump administration’s strikes in Iran and mass deportations of illegal aliens.
“I’m not paying my federal income tax this year,” said attorney and activist Rachel Cohen in a TikTok video posted earlier this month, which has since garnered more than 600,000 views.
Explaining that she received income from a number of different contract-based sources after leaving a “high paid corporate law firm” last year, citing “industry capitulation to the Trump administration,” Cohen stated she owes “about $8,800” to the federal government.
“But the thing is, right now my federal income tax is going overwhelmingly to disappearing my neighbors to concentration camps and to the military industrial complex,” said Cohen. According to CNBC, which reported that she has since paid her state income taxes, the attorney was referencing the Trump administration’s immigration policy and strikes on Iran.
In her video, Cohen clarified she filed her federal taxes without paying, and instead placed the $8,800 into an escrow account.
Though Cohen said her video was not legal advice and that she was not encouraging others to stop paying their federal income taxes, last year, she helped found American Demands, a grassroots political organization that seeks to influence the Democratic Party’s positions and messaging.
“Like many Americans, I am horrified by the depravity of the Trump administration’s actions this year, and constantly disappointed in the lack of proactive vision put forth by the opposition party in response,” said Cohen in a press release last September.
Describing the Trump administration as a “fascist power play,” Cohen stated, “If Democratic strategists can’t figure that messaging out, we the people will do it ourselves.”
As Cohen’s videos amassed millions of views on social media, other detractors of the Trump administration made similar statements to The New York Times on Sunday.
A retired chaplain named Eileen O’Farrell Smith reportedly questioned, “How can I pay taxes when I don’t want to pay for things I abhor, while neglecting things I care about?” Like Cohen, The Times reported that O’Farrell Smith is concerned about “immigration detention camps and the U.S. War on Iran.”
A third woman, Nina D’Andrade, reportedly wrote to the newspaper to question whether she could refuse to pay her taxes as a “protest to the excesses and abuses of ICE.”
Despite the purported tax protesters claiming their refusal to pay is rooted in moral objection to the Trump administration’s policies, an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) web page states there is no First Amendment right not to pay taxes over objections to their use.
The First Amendment, according to the IRS, “does not provide a right to refuse to pay income taxes on religious or moral grounds or because taxes are used to fund government programs opposed by the taxpayer.”
It additionally warns, “The First Amendment does not protect commercial speech or speech that aids or incites taxpayers to unlawfully refuse to pay federal income taxes, including speech that promotes abusive tax avoidance schemes.”
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Rachel Cohen” by Rachel Cohen.
Play stupid games win stupid prizes. For someone with a last name which suggests she’s from the People of The Book she’s pretty dumb.
I felt the same way when Sleepy Joe was president and actively destroying the county. But I paid my taxes. Suck it up, little girl. A prime example of an AWFUL.
As with anyone else, attach any assets she may possess. As with anyone else, jail time should be used as appropriate. That’ll show how attached she is to her convictions. Imagine how the left would scream if others took the same position during the Obama and Biden nightmare years.
Wow apparently some idiots think they can use some crazy idea for not paying Federal Income taxes . Lets see the US has taken out other dictators so taking out Iran’s isn’t something new and the people cheered Trump . As for deportations well I have to agree to a certain point because I feel there is a better way of enforcing the law .
Anyway I think those who want to refuse paying their taxes they should focus their reasons on getting rid of all the old farts like Bernie Sanders , Chuck Schumer and the rest of those who have been in office for more then 30 plus years and made millions off the taxpayers. The crap going on with Iran won’t last forever but old politicians never die . It’s time for term limits .
Institutionalize this mentally ill woman for a few years, then lock her up for tax evasion. Lawyer, schmawyer, as the dems love to say – no one is above the law.
This is NOT the first person that has had this idea, nor the first to try this. I hope she has a great deal of money for lawyers, and enjoys time in jail. If everyone that did not like something that the government did, and would not pay taxes, the government would fold. But then again, that may be what they want.