Why the IRS asks taxpayers about income from illegal activities

Why does the IRS require people to report income from stolen goods and illegal activities? The answer involves 1920s mobsters and a nearly century-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

If you do report on your taxes, you might not get in trouble. But if you don’t, you could be charged with tax evasion.

🎥: Chris Vazquez / The Marshall Project

#shorts #taxday #taxes #tax

[theraytharow]

Wait does this mean that if I pay tax for illegal activities they aren't going to investigate me for it?

[Cyberwar]

The IRS is like "We dont care so long as we get our cut."

[shadowsonicsilver]

Technically the IRS can do all of this for you, but private interest groups lobbied hard to prevent it.

[celestinemorningstar]

IRS is doing the equivalent of "I'm going to close my eyes and ask for 30% of everything else you made, and as long as you do it now, I won't ask where you got it from"

[TwiliPaladin]

In short: The IRS doesn't care where the money comes from as long as it's taxed.

[Loy_Otterton]

Well you know what they say. They can't get me for stealing, but they will get me for not paying my taxes...

[Schnipah]

All I’m saying is that the IRS is annoying enough it drove a guy to kamikaze into their office in a small plane.

[J.Jonah.Jameson.]

The government doesn't care about stopping crime as long as they get their cut too.

[GSBarlev]

You stole my heart for sure, but it was while you were in DC at The Washington Post, so as long as you file it under "Capital Gains" you should be fine.

[ghaithdev]

So the thing that is actually seriously affected by this is the sale of Cannabis in state's where it is illegal. Because it is illegal at the federal level it counts as illegal income but legal dispensaries still have to report their income

[evanporter]

Damn looks like I need to pay 509.5 million dollars to the IRS

[xyro]

"We're fine with crime, just pay your taxes"
This literally means that crime pays.

[impostor]

I'm crazy enough to go against batman!
But the IRS?
Noooo thank you!! 😂

[trekkienzl]

I worked at the debt collections department of MSD (Ministry of Social Development) here in 🇳🇿 New Zealand, where we collected debts from clients who owed us benefit/welfare debts.

At MSD Collections, we just wanted to know if debtors have a stable income to reliably repay their debts and even if they gained their income from illegal activity, it didn't matter so long as they paid their debts.

In fact, under our privacy policies we can't even disclose their illegal income to law enforcement without a court order to do so.

That said, we had clients who told us that they sold drugs, robbed stores, sold stolen goods, etc and we'd just need to record it as miscellaneous income and proceed as normal.

[theworkshopwhisperer.]

Anyone else want to remind me how this system is completely logical and not at all lost in its own soup.

[KJ-xtyu]

meanwhile... continously printing money and sending it to countries that havent paid a dime back in interest let alone any respectable % of return on investment, or oversite/accounting for the fiat being sent.

[rambofan]

"I'm crazy enough to take on Batman, but the IRS? No thank you." Joker.

[-_-ruaifi-_-]

then why does money laundering exist if you can report your illegal income?

[EdgyShooter]

There is a joke that the easiest way to get away with crime is yo declare it on your taxes 😂

[lady_blut]

I remember someone from the irs employed said when she was in training they don’t care if you are selling drug or other thing as long they pay taxes they don’t care.