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Ten weird state taxes

Ten weird state taxes. Illegal drug tax!

By Jason Kottke    Apr 16, 2004 at 02:11 pm

There are 4 reader comments

dakota smith    Apr 16 2004    2:51PM

illegal drug taxes exist to be able to try people for not claiming income made on illegal drug sales. say you go to trial for selling piles of meth, and you are found not guilty, they then try for for you money you made and didn't pay taxes on.

kinda like on your income taxes, where you are asked if you made money off of illegal activities. they don't expect you to tell them, and when you don't, you broke the law, and evaded taxation and suddenly your al capone and you have syphilis and die in jail.

Stefan Jones    Apr 16 2004    4:07PM

You can actually buy tax stamps for Marijuana. I forget which state(s) issue them.

cali    Apr 16 2004    5:47PM

California tax forms this year mention a "use tax" that applies to anything you haven't paid sales tax on (including internet purchases). They make a big point of saying the law was passed in 1935, so I'd bet no one else has ever heard of it before either. Is this what the Governator meant when he promised no "new" taxes?

Aristan    Apr 16 2004    8:51PM

Stefan Jones,

I do know that North Carolina issuses Marijuana tax stamps, as the article states. They use it to get the money due the government... if you don't pay your taxes on those goods (even though they're illegal), the state can seize all your belongs & sell them at auction. It's not surprising that North Carolina is also one of the first states to use Ebay to get rid of all the items they seize.

It's also used as a way to punish those that 'get away' with illegal activity. Remember that the only thing they could pin on Al Capone was Tax Evasion.

This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.

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