Creating chilling effects of registering to pay taxes. What could possibly go wrong?

I mean, this has long been a loophole in US law. Generally, you can't be compelled to testify against yourself (5th Amendment). But when it comes to taxes:

1) You have to declare all income, even from illegal activities.

2) The declarations can be used against you in court (IIUIC with the caveat that they need an independent reason to get a warrant for those tax records).

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guywithahat 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

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fhdkweig 4 hours ago | parent [-]

The article says they were already getting this information directly from the IRS until a court order shut it down. It is worthwhile to note that in the past the IRS stayed out of police investigations so that even if criminals were doing criminal things to make money, it didn't discourage them from paying taxes on it.

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guywithahat 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I would disagree with that premise, famously the FBI has used unpaid taxes to after a number of high profile criminals, most famously Al Capone but more frequently its gang members or fraud (like some of the Somali fraud cases in Minnesota). I believe they like to make your claim to encourage paying taxes, but practically they work together frequently. Crime shouldn't suddenly be ok if you pay taxes on it

	▲	niam 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> practically they work together frequently Are the originators of these investigations the same? Might that matter? > Crime shouldn't suddenly be ok if you pay taxes on it Cool. Nobody is making that argument.