An Act of Conscience

An Act of Conscience (1997)

Standing up for your beliefs begins at home.

When a young couple buys a contested home at auction from the U.S. government for $5,400, they become involved in a political and moral battle much larger than what they originally bargained for.

Date of release
1997-04-15
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Robbie Leppzer

Casting

Interesting facts

An Act of Conscience is a 1997 American documentary film directed, shot and edited by Robbie Leppzer. It centers around war tax resisters Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner, and the years-long struggle that ensued after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seized their home in Colrain, Massachusetts, in 1989, to collect $27,000 in unpaid taxes and interest. When the house is sold to another couple, Kehler, Corner, and hundreds of supporters occupy the property in protest.

Background

Randy Kehler and his wife Betsy Corner owned a house in Colrain, Massachusetts, where they lived with their daughter Lillian. Kehler had previously been to federal prison for refusing the draft during the Vietnam War. In 1977, the couple stopped paying federal income taxes as a protest against war and military spending, though they continued to pay their state and local taxes.

Each year, the couple have filed a federal income tax form with the IRS, without enclosing payment. According to Corner, they would calculate the federal income taxes they owed each year, and would then donate 50% of that amount to victims of US-backed war in Nicaragua and El Salvador; the other 50% would be donated to women's shelters, veterans' outreach programs, the homeless, and other local organizations.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended