Want to protest high taxes while still abiding by the law? You could always pay your taxes in singles.
Robert Fernandes, of Forks Township, Pa., paid his $7,143.54 tax to the local school district with stacks of one dollar bills — and a few coins. He completed his stunt in order to protest having to pay for an education system that his family doesn’t use. His wife homeschools their three children.
“We don’t even use the public system, yet I am being forced to pay all this money into a public school system,” he told a local news outlet. “I don’t think that’s really either fair or just or even ethical.”
Under state law, homeschooled children are still considered part of the school district in which they live, according to Forbes. Parents must file information about their kids’ educational instruction and achievement, in order to comply with Pennsylvania’s compulsory attendance requirement. Fernandes, however, wants other taxpayers to think about how much money the government takes from them and start submitting their payments in cash as well.
Fernandes, who bought his house as a short sale, pays almost $10,000 dollars in property taxes annually. He moved to Forks Township in search of lower property taxes that would allow him to buy a bigger house, in order to let his elderly parents to live with his family.
The Pennsylvania man delivered his payment to a Forks Township tax collector, Anne Bennett-Morse, who reminded him that the school board sets the budget, not the local government. Fernandes stressed that he didn’t want “to make anybody’s life more difficult,” and he brought a box of doughnuts for anyone he might have inconvenienced.
“I like to create a visual,” he explained in the video.
As Forbes noted, his $7,000 “visual” probably weighed more than 14 pounds.
Watch the video below:
