Posted on 07/16/2006 7:58:12 PM PDT by Know your rights
A Nashville judge is calling the state's tax on illegal drugs "unconstitutional".
The levy took effect in 2005 and applies to substances like cocaine, crack, methamphetamine and marijuana.
Chancellor Richard Dinkins says the tax violates the defendants' right against self incrimination and to due process and is levied long before the accused stands trial.
The ruling stopped the state from collecting more than one million dollars from Jeremy Robbins, who is one of at least eight people accused of moving two tons of marijuana from Arizona to East Tennessee.
The ruling applies only to the Robbins case; legal experts say a court may eventually have to decide on the validity of the tax.
No inebriation without taxation!
No. NFA is a tax on legal products.
I don't know if they still sell them or not.
L
When I first saw this article I thought they were talking about kids with their pants hanging below their waist showing their underwear. I was gonna say instead of taxing them they should fine them for indecency.
Government (state, local, and da fedz) trying to find more money schemes to fund their enormous debt.
Yep.
Should the state have to prove that I was actually productive before it punishes my productivity with an income tax?
This law was passed to make seizure of drug dealer assets easier. Before, law enforcement had to go through foreiture proceedings, which was a drawn out process. When it comes to the tax, if you have a stamp you can't be assessed and your assets seized for the tax liability. No stamp, then you're out of luck. The law was based on a 10 year old North Carolina law. This does not keep you out of jail. It merely makes it harder for the state to seize a drug dealer's assets if he has the stamp. And taxpayer confidentiality laws prevent the information from being relayed to law enforcement if someone does buy a stamp.
wow...the WOD has gotten really weird...
Good decision.
The same way hookers report their income ~ use Form 1040.
But don't they have to get 1099's from them clients?
Nope ~ IRS will take your word for it.
Isn't this the way they caught Al Capone????
This judge must have been snorting some hot stuff before he came up with this decision. They should check his nostrils out.
BTW, this "crack tax" is an excise tax is it not? The Constitution lays few restrictions on such things.
Only if they're talking to the police. The Department Of Revenue under the law has to treat anyone who buys a stamp the same as they have to with a business filing sales tax or an individual filing on his interest income and dividends ( the only individual income taxed in Tennessee). It is confidential taxpayer information.
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