always tip your tax collector

all the drug news you need The Rise And Fall Of Tennessee's Crack Tax When you file your taxes, you might run into a box prompting you to pay additional tax on any illegal income you have. The government may not know about this income of yours. But the logic says you pay the tax anyway, in case they find out about it later and pile tax evasion on top of your other crimes. Leave the box empty, and they may even charge you for tax evasion on the income without proving the crimes, making you a modern Al Capone. Some laws tax illegal income with extra specificity, and here’s where it gets really weird. In 2005, Tennessee enacted a new tax on illegal drugs. The foundation for this tax, claimed lawmakers, lay in a national tax on marijuana passed in 1937. However, marijuana was legal in 1937—the law aimed to effectively ban the drug by making it so expensive, but they weren’t asking anyone to come forward and admit owning illegal substances. Tennessee's 2005 law taxed marijuana at the rate of $2.50 per gram and cocaine at $50 per gram. And while few people volunteer illegal income taxes to the IRS, people did pay Tennessee’s “crack tax.” For the first couple years, it brought in more than $1.5 million annually. That’s less than the $43 million they estimated they were owed, but it was $1.5 million more than we’d expect people would pay. So, did Tennessee authorities accept the money and then let the indiscreet drug users alone after that? Absolutely not. They now had a list of self-admitted criminals, and they made full use of this information. This meant going even further than, say, starting investigations against them. At times, they just launched raids and seized the users’ property without awaiting any conviction. In 2009, the state supreme court declared the law unconstitutional. It violated your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, they ruled. That meant the 2,788 people who’d paid money under the law were eligible for refunds, and the first 16 people who did so got $3.7 million. For more on the history of drugs, check out: - [We Test Drugs on Rats ... And Ourselves]( - [Myth: "Crack Babies" Exist]( - [Cocaine Treats Wounds on Children]( Top image: [Argv0/Wiki Commons]( Daily Digest [Ask The Photographer If You Can Buy Pictures Of Other People And 14 More Apex George Carlin Jokes]( By Chris Corlew / October 06th, 2022 [The First Haunted House In Space (VIDEO)]( By Jason Pargin / October 06th, 2022 [15 Famous Ghosts To Get Freaked Out By]( By Eli Yudin / October 06th, 2022 [Trevor Noah's Exit Has Us Wondering: Do We Need The Daily Show?]( By Matt Solomon / October 06th, 2022 [Seinfeld: How 'The Contest' Made It To Air And 13 More Recent Revelations]( By JD Roberson / October 06th, 2022 [READ MORE]( [fb]( [tw]( [yt]( [Logomark_DIGITAL_Red_50X50-px] [insta png]( [tiktok png]( [ARTICLES]( | [PICTOFACTS]( | [Videos]( Literally media Ltd. 190 West St, Suite 17B, Brooklyn NY 11222 COPYRIGHT © 2005-2022 Cracked is published by Literally media Ltd. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. ONE CRACKED FACT | [View in browser](