Posted on 09/08/2013 5:23:42 AM PDT by Kaslin
“So, what did you do during your summer break?” If you happen to be a certain 12 year old boy from Pocatello, Idaho, you spent the summer being productive and successfully carrying on an entrepreneurial venture, and then experiencing your state government cracking-down on you for not being licensed and demanding a portion of your revenues.
The 12 year old son of Jason Weeks is who we’re talking about. Weeks’ son announced at the beginning of the summer that he wanted to acquire a motorcycle. Weeks had the good sense to tell his son to earn money and purchase one for himself. So the son took the father’s advice, and – presumably with some help from some adults – he launched a fruit stand, right near a Red Wings Shoe store in small town Pocatello.
But soon after Weeks’ son launched, the Idaho State Tax Commission lunged. “They confronted him first and he called me” Weeks told the Idaho State Journal newspaper. “It was the second day that my son was in business.”
According to Weeks and the local newspaper, the state is demanding payment for a 6% state sales tax that they claim should have been collected by the boy from cash paying customers that bought his raspberries. Weeks would not return my calls prior to the writing of this piece, but, without commenting specifically about the incident, the state tax commission acknowledges that it happened and notes that they have to enforce the law with everybody.
Americans everywhere should make note of this situation and learn from it. Lesson number one is that nobody should attempt to launch any sort of business in the United States without making certain that they are in full compliance with city, county, state and federal regulations. That’s a tall order, but that’s how costly it has become to do business in America.
Governments nationwide and at all levels are almost universally on the hunt for money, and many of them are broke. There is no limit to governments’ willingness to turn people upside down and shake cash out of their pockets, and they’ll even do it with children. (The Idaho state tax commission had a similar run-in with a 6 year old back in 2010!). If a business is being operated without the proper licensure and permitting requirements being met, and without proper taxation procedures in place, an operator no matter their age will likely be fined for being out of compliance, and fined retroactively for however long the non-compliance has been happening. Business owners, beware.
The other great lesson in this situation is to realize that we live in an era of abusive government. Agents of city, county, state and federal government often don’t know any limits to how they can and will exercise their powers over the lives of private individuals, and the cause of the problem is we, the people. With often less than 50% of the American population participating in U.S. presidential elections, voter turn-out for state and local elections is usually even smaller. Such ambivalence is emboldening to bureaucrats and politicians who have power and enjoy using it.
Abusive government won’t stop until Americans wake up and choose otherwise. Hopefully the young Mr. Weeks from Pocatello – and others in his generation – will someday choose more wisely than today’s adult population.
Geez, you’d think we lived in the United States, or something.
The mafia calls this protection money.
I call it “predatory government”. They liked using the term “predatory lenders” for the people who sold home mortgages but the predatory government is far worse. Look what they’ve done now for student college loans - they nationalized them then jacked up the interest rate, all in the name of “fixing” something when they were the largest part of the problem.
How is this different than paying money to the Mafia for “protection”?
Government is oppressive when it demands a part of your income so it can give it to cronies and use it to buy votes from the Taker class.
In Tennessee we have a Farmer’s market exemption. No sales tax for retail sales at a Farmer’s Market. I don’t know the definition of such a stand but if the boy was selling his own product, he would be exempt.
It appears someone ratted him out and the scale of his business was too large. To be noticed on the second day means someone was after him and sicced the tax guys on him
At least the Mafia make no pretense about being crooked.
What's the difference between a bureaucrat and a gangster?
Bureaucrats kill businesses, not their owners.
I just had to laugh.
If enterprises such as this are exempt from taxes then adults could easily setup their children as a front for their own businesses.
Oh, my! A FReeper justifying the tax burden on U.S. citizens.
How is a fruit stand an ‘enterprise?’ Is there an official tax-purpose definition of ‘enterprise’ about which I’m unaware? Enterprises are usually large undertakings that require a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. A child would not be at the head of a true enterprise, and an adult or a group of adults would not get away with putting a child at the head of a true enterprise.
All of that aside, are you aware of the American pedigree when it comes to business? It used to be that a farmer could take his entire harvest to the nearest street corner to sell his crops at whatever price he wished and with no more than a nod and a smile from any government employee.
Nowadays, that farmer would be subject to regulations, liens, appropriations, taxes, levies, you name it, if he started a fruit stand without consulting the local government, at the least, first. That’s NOT how America was founded or worked as little as 50 years ago.
Our government, from the Federal level down to your local city council, is completely out of control. Every last one of them is drunk with power and does what they please to feed the beast. That’s not America.
We really, truly need to take America back.
I guess Idaho has a sales tax on food. Most places I have lived do not tax food unless it is sold for consumption on the premises.
We could think of the Mafia as "undocumented politicians".
The is a sliver of a silver lining. The government probably created another government thug hating person in that Weeks kid and his family. Someone who doesn’t trust, believe in, and hates these bureaucrats, hopefully with a blinding fury.
In todays world, that’s a good thing for our society.
We could think of the Mafia as “undocumented politicians”.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
At least the Mafia was up front and didn’t use your ‘tax’ money to hire new goons to harass you etc.
The ‘theory’ was pretty well explained when ‘Tony’ went into the Sporting Goods Business.
He became a ‘partner’ because the owner owed for GAMBLING debts, Tony was very clear that the guy put himself into the position, and everything was fine as long as you paid the ‘vig’ on time.
The longer you don’t pay, the more they bleed from the business till they have to shutter it and the ‘owner’ is left holding the bag while his ‘new partners’ move on to greener pastures.
Even at the ‘end’ when the dudes kid graduated from high school the guy appeared to be seeking sympathy from Tony because he not only lost his business, his home, his family because he blew the ‘college account’, Tony just smiled, shook his hand etc...and all but told him
“Sympathy is in the Dictionary between ‘$hiite and Syphilis”
Tony also had that ‘fatherly’ approach when he explained to his daughter (and wife on occasion) where all the ‘opulence’ came from and the gifts were part of it, the car being a business deal.
Of course Tony neglected to tell Meadow that the alternate to the SUV was a cap in the knee or worse, but ‘we’ must shield our children from certain negatives....
Bump
Bureaucrats kill businesses, not their owners.
That, and the Mafia may eventually be held to account for their crimes. Governments and their officials almost never are.
"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged" - GK Chesterton.
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