Even Al Capone went in for tax evasion. If you are going to do crime, just report and pay taxes on the income you get from it as “other”, the IRS doesn’t talk to the police for anything other than tax evasion.
You can still get in trouble for possession of course.
Most states with these kinds of tax stamp laws passed them explicitly to create a new crime to charge people with, not to actually collect any tax revenue. In some cases it provides an excuse to seize property when state law would otherwise prohibit it (they aren't using civil/criminal forfeiture, just seizing property to payoff a tax debt). If you showed up to buy the stamps they wouldn't sell them - some states didn't even bother printing any.
Eventually this was tested in courts and squashed; the courts ruled you can't create an impossible-to-follow law just to catch people. If the law says you have to buy weed stamps then the state must actually sell them. The state also can't use it to entrap you (eg: by requiring you bring the weed to the tax office, then arresting you for possession).
There's a small cottage industry of folks who collect these tax stamps because they're so rarely issued. Most people don't bother buying them so the law still serves its purpose of giving prosecutors more crimes to charge you with.
Which is surely going to happen because people will pay taxes even anonymously, because it's such an enjoyable activity.
USAians in particular looove to pay tax!
(signed: a brit. Who knows nothing of history)
Edit: flippant, but now I can start to see the rationale. Thanks all.
Source?
There’s a bi-weekly process called “314(a) Information Sharing” that’s run by the Treasury Department under the USA PATRIOT Act. It requires financial institutions to pass all kinds of information on to the agencies in the Department - IRS, Secret Service, Customs, ATF, Homeland Security, etc. - who are looking into various matters. All of those agencies are under the same umbrella and they absolutely work together.
A good friend of mine is also a forensic accountant/investigator for the US Attorney’s Office so I know the IRS works closely with the DOJ though I’m not familiar with how that process works in practice.
> IRC 6103(i)(1) provides that, pursuant to court order, return information may be shared with law enforcement agencies for investigation and prosecution of non-tax criminal laws.
They need a warrant, the IRS can’t proactively share tax info with law enforcement agencies for non-tax law reasons.
Unless the US Congress asks for them.