Tax resisters come from a wide range of backgrounds with diverse ideologies and aims. For example, Henry David Thoreau and William Lloyd Garrison drew inspiration from the American Revolution and the stubborn pacifism of the Quakers. Some tax resisters refuse to pay tax because their conscience will not allow them to fund war, whilst others resist tax as part of a campaign to overthrow the government. Tax resisters have been violent revolutionaries like John Adams and pacifist nonresistants like John Woolman; communists like Karl Marx and capitalists like Vivien Kellems; solitary anti-war activists like Ammon Hennacy and leaders of independence movements like Mahatma Gandhi. Leo Tolstoy, a Christian anarchist, urged government leaders to change their attitude to war and citizens to taxes: Methods As an example of the numerous tax resistance methods, below are some of the legal and illegal techniques used by war tax resisters: Legal Avoidance A resister may lower their tax payments by using legal tax avoidance techniques. Paying under protest Some taxpayers pay their taxes, but include protest letters along with their tax forms. Others pay in a protesting form—for instance, by writing their cheque on a toilet seat or a mock-up of a missile. Others pay in a way that creates inconvenience for the collector—for instance, by paying the entire amount in low-denomination coins. This last method is less effective in countries where small coins are legal tender only in limited amounts, allowing the tax authority legally to reject such payments; for example in England and Wales, 1p coins are legal tender only in amounts up to 20p. Reducing taxable income and consumption Other tax resisters change their lifestyles so that they owe less tax. For instance; to avoid consumption taxes on alcohol, a resister might home-brew beer; to avoid excise taxes on gasoline, a resister might take up cycling; to avoid income tax, a resister may reduce their income below the tax threshold by embracing simple living or a freegan lifestyle. For example, British citizens pay no income tax if their income is below the personal allowance. In the US the equivalent tax-free annual income is the standard deduction, though many deductions and credits allow people to earn much more than this and still avoid income tax. Opposition to war has led some, such as Ammon Hennacy and Ellen Thomas, to a form of tax resistance in which they reduce their income below the