Crack Tax

[AlohaDawg]

Can someone from Tennessee explain how the hell this works to me?

Tennessee has a crack tax

More here

[pmcd9]

Back when I was a regular pot user I was at my Sisters house and her, and her husband, and I saw a news story warning people to pay the sales tax on the marijuana.  We figured we had hallucinated it and went about our business.

~Paul

[misterqueue]

....  excuse me for a moment ....



*BANGS HEAD ON THE WALL REPEATEDLY UNTIL MY BRAINS ARE LEAKING OUT*

Now I too can make laws in Tennessee!


Tennessein' really IS tennebelievin!

[AugustWest]

This is so they can charge you with tax evasion as well as drug possession.  They could also use it to hit drug dealers with financial penalties ala the tax code.

[AlohaDawg]

I think also to raise money for the drug programs. But why wouldn't you just add financial penalties to the crime that they are already committing? Rather than create a novelty stamp for people to 'buy' raising money for the drug programs.

I mean, you could also create an assault tax where you have to deposit in advance money against potentially punching or kicking someone. Or a blowjob tax for prostitutes. Or a murder tax.

It's just a stupid idea intended to creatively fund some drug programs. Because otherwise, logically, you should arrest every person who pays the tax because they are basically confessing to a crime or planning to commit one.

[Limmo]

I mean, you could also create an assault tax where you have to deposit in advance money against potentially punching or kicking someone.

That would such an excellent tool of intimidation.  Showing someone you dislike documentation that you've paid in advance to beat the shit out of them. 

[arkabee]

no, dawg, no i can't explain it to you.

my guess, however, is that it's a bullshit law that was made to "do something" "about something".

for some reason, i feel defensive, like i need to defend tn.

sadly, the best i can think of is "i bet other states do stupid stuff too! cuz they are stupid!"

i think, however, it was an effort to come up with something else to charge drug dealers with.

[CortJstr]

The closest thing VA does is that on the state tax form it says that we have to pay 4.5% for anything we bought online or while in another state that doesn't charge sales tax. I can't fathom how this can possibly be legal.

[miles]

The closest thing VA does is that on the state tax form it says that we have to pay 4.5% for anything we bought online or while in another state that doesn't charge sales tax. I can't fathom how this can possibly be legal.

Washington State does this, too.  I don't know the exact rate, but I acutally know someone who actually pays it.  He also has been known to chastize those who don't pay it.  Come to think of it, he's the Pat of taxation.

[CortJstr]

I could've sworn that states aren't allowed to charge taxes on things you ordered in from out of states. Interstate commerce is a federal-level deal. I think it's only on the form to snag the gullible and the paranoid.

[miles]

Hmm, although I'm interested in Constitutional Law, I'm no expert.  But I think the point of the interstate commerce clause is to regulate what Congress can do with intrastate commerce...I think.

[AugustWest]

That's correct.  The point of the interstate commerce clause is to limit the power of the federal government over contracts and commerce that is purely intra-state.  However, Supreme Court decisions so broadened the scope of the interstate commerce clause during the early 20th Century as to make it meaningless.

Also, how much purely intra-state commerce is there nowadays?  Pretty much all commerce has some connection across state lines these days.