Under international law the use of armed force is only lawful when a State is under attack by the armed forces of another State and needs to defend itself and repel its attackers. All other forms of war are illegal.
The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (1999) which has been ratified into UK Law states that:
‘Any person commits an offence, if that person by any means, directly or indirectly, unlawfully and wilfully, provides or collects funds in the knowledge that they are to be used, in full or in part, in order to carry out any act intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to any other person when the purpose of such act is to intimidate a population…’
If a taxpayer gives money to a tax collector such as a council, HMRC, the DVLA or a business charging VAT knowing that some of it will be passed to the Ministry of Defence to fund wars of aggression, he or she may be found guilty of acting unlawfully. With the current UK government unwilling to reveal ongoing advice from lawyers, and multiple NGOs, lawyers, civil servants, judges, charities and even those working for arms companies – already voicing their concerns and refusing to be complicit – the responsibility of ethical taxation lies solely at the door of the taxpayer.