Regarding Tennessee’s tax on illegal drugs, a commenter over at Michael Silence’s blog writes:

The Department of Revenue claims that to date nobody has attempted to voluntarily pay this tax. I would like to point out that this is untrue.

I attempted to voluntarily pay this tax on January 6, but all of my attempts were rejected by DOR because I am unwilling to travel to Nashville and stand before DOR employees to pay the tax.

This is the only tax in Tennessee that must be paid in person, which serves only to intimidate and unduly burden the taxpayer, discouraging them from paying the tax. Because of this, I believe this is not truly a tax, rather a penalty, which is unconstitutional under the Supreme Court decision Montana Department of Revenue v. Kurth Ranch, et al.

The Department of Revenue should change their tune from “nobody buys them” to “we won’t sell them.”

Actually, I think the tax serves only as an additional charge and fine in the event someone is caught with drugs.

Posted in uncategorized on March 11th, 2005 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |