Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The United States was founded on the rallying cry of “no taxation without representation. Yet, 250 years later 3.6 million people in U.S. territories pay over $5 billion in federal taxes each year, all without any say in what federal taxes — or other federal laws — they are required to follow. A new report from Right to Democracy, “Taxation Without Representation”: Colonial Narratives Then and Now, takes a close look at the history of taxation leading up to the 1776 American Revolution and misconceptions around taxation in U.S. territories today to ask what “consent of the governed” means in 2026 for residents of Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. 

“On Tax Day, it is important to think about the slogan ‘taxation without representation’ and what it means for people in U.S. territories today,” said Neil Weare, Co-Director of Right to Democracy. “It is eye-opening to see just how many similarities exist in the relationship between the thirteen colonies and Great Britain and the relationship between U.S. territories and the federal government, whether it is taxes or broader questions of democratic accountability and self-determination.”

“Misconceptions about federal taxes in U.S. territories serve to normalize or even justify the undemocratic colonial rule of these communities,” said Adi Martínez-Román, Co-Director of Right to Democracy. “They erase the lived reality of people who are expected to follow federal law while lacking meaningful power over what those laws require. ‘Consent of the governed’ as a fundamental principle of democracy and self-determination is as important in 2026 as it was in 1776.”

The report challenges the claims that people in the territories do not pay federal taxes or are an exceptional burden on the federal treasury, showing that this narrative is both misleading and routinely used to rationalize unequal treatment. By linking today’s debate to the colonial arguments Americans already recognize from the 1760s and 1770s, the report invites a broader public to see territorial policy not as a niche issue, but as an unfinished democratic question that challenges the most basic principles the United States claims to be founded on.

“Too often, the conversation stops at a lazy myth that the territories ‘don’t pay taxes,’ or ‘are an inordinate drain on the U.S.’ said Edoardo Ortiz, Advocacy Director at Right to Democracy. “This report gives journalists, policymakers, educators, and the public a clear answer to that falsehood — and a clearer lens for seeing the bigger question underneath it: why the United States still accepts a colonial double standard in U.S. territories that it expressly rejected at its founding.”

The report is the latest addition to Right to Democracy's “250/125” campaign - which places the undemocratic colonial framework in U.S. Territories under the historical lens of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the 125th anniversary of the Insular Cases. The campaign will hold events across the territories and states, publish resources, and advance projects that take advantage of these unique anniversaries to de-normalize undemocratic rule in the U.S. Territories.

The report is available at https://www.righttodemocracy.us/new_report_the_u_s_still_has_a_taxation_without_representation_problem