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Hmm, OK, if you say so. However, the Kansas Driving Handbook says you must pass both the written and driving tests, or have a certificate of completion from driver education.

Kansas thought about it. Failure to buy your tax stamps means that they can bust you for tax evasion also. Too bad it is unconstitutional as was proven in Leary v The United States when court decided unanimously that the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was in violation of the Fifth Amendment.

The tax is here for one. Because the purchase is anonymous you don't have the issues with the 5th ammendment that Leary v US did, but you can still be prosecuted after the fact for failing to pay the tax if you're caught with the controlled substance.

Also, the 1970 law was written for a whole host of reasons, to state that it was just a reaction to Leary v US greatly oversimplifies how the law proceeded through Congress (since the drugs were illegal with or without the taxes applied to them).

And if you live in Kansas (or several other states) don't forget to affix your drug tax stamps to that stash.

You don't have a drug tax stamp? Well, just hop on down to the local government office and pick some up! They take cash, money orders, and cashier's checks. (No personal checks -- darn!)

Here's a reference from the Kansas Department of Revenue:

http://www.ksrevenue.org/perstaxtypesdrug.htm

The drug tax is due as soon as the dealer takes possession of the marijuana or controlled substance. Payment of the drug tax will purchase the drug tax stamps. Attach the stamp to the marijuana and/or controlled substance immediately after receiving the substance. The stamps are valid for 3 months. Drugs seized without stamps or having expired stamps may result in criminal or civil penalties which may include fines, seizure of property or liens against real estate.

Kansas Driving Rules

Probably has the lowest age in the country, due to farm driving licenses. (Think tractors)

There are several jurisdictions that require tax stamps for marijuana; Kansas, for instance. Yes, it's mildly insane. On the other hand, the country's attitude about marijuana is pretty schizophrenic, and Kansas is a farm state after all....

You cannot tax an illegal activity

I don't know about Canada, but many states in the US have specific tax systems on illegal drugs. I will cite Kansas below, simply because it was the first Google hit.

Kansas Department of Revenue:
The fact that dealing marijuana and controlled substances is illegal does not exempt it from taxation. Therefore drug dealers are required by law to purchase drug tax stamps.

The drug tax is due as soon as the dealer takes possession of the marijuana or controlled substance. Payment of the drug tax will purchase the drug tax stamps. Attach the stamp to the marijuana and/or controlled substance immediately after receiving the substance. The stamps are valid for 3 months. Drugs seized without stamps or having expired stamps may result in criminal or civil penalties which may include fines, seizure of property or liens against real estate.

A dealer is not required to give his/her name or address when purchasing stamps and the Department is prohibited from sharing any information relating to the purchase of drug tax stamps with law enforcement or anyone else.

Purchasing drug tax stamps does not make possession of drugs legal.

Kansas drug tax FAQ

Kansas drug tax rates:
Marijuana:
* Processed $3.50 per gram
* Wet Plant $0.40 per gram
* Dry Plant $0.90 per gram
Controlled substances:
* $200 per gram or portion of gram
Controlled substances:
* $2000 per 50 dose unit or portion of unit

There's even a eBay store dedicated to marihuana tax stamps from across the country.

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You cannot tax an illegal activity

I don't know about Canada, but many states in the US have specific tax systems on illegal drugs. I will cite Kansas below, simply because it was the first Google hit.

Kansas Department of Revenue:
The fact that dealing marijuana and controlled substances is illegal does not exempt it from taxation. Therefore drug dealers are required by law to purchase drug tax stamps.

The drug tax is due as soon as the dealer takes possession of the marijuana or controlled substance. Payment of the drug tax will purchase the drug tax stamps. Attach the stamp to the marijuana and/or controlled substance immediately after receiving the substance. The stamps are valid for 3 months. Drugs seized without stamps or having expired stamps may result in criminal or civil penalties which may include fines, seizure of property or liens against real estate.

A dealer is not required to give his/her name or address when purchasing stamps and the Department is prohibited from sharing any information relating to the purchase of drug tax stamps with law enforcement or anyone else.

Purchasing drug tax stamps does not make possession of drugs legal.

Kansas drug tax FAQ

Kansas drug tax rates:
Marijuana:
* Processed $3.50 per gram
* Wet Plant $0.40 per gram
* Dry Plant $0.90 per gram
Controlled substances:
* $200 per gram or portion of gram
Controlled substances:
* $2000 per 50 dose unit or portion of unit

There's even a eBay store dedicated to marihuana tax stamps from across the country.

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You cannot tax an illegal activity

I don't know about Canada, but many states in the US have specific tax systems on illegal drugs. I will cite Kansas below, simply because it was the first Google hit.

Kansas Department of Revenue:
The fact that dealing marijuana and controlled substances is illegal does not exempt it from taxation. Therefore drug dealers are required by law to purchase drug tax stamps.

The drug tax is due as soon as the dealer takes possession of the marijuana or controlled substance. Payment of the drug tax will purchase the drug tax stamps. Attach the stamp to the marijuana and/or controlled substance immediately after receiving the substance. The stamps are valid for 3 months. Drugs seized without stamps or having expired stamps may result in criminal or civil penalties which may include fines, seizure of property or liens against real estate.

A dealer is not required to give his/her name or address when purchasing stamps and the Department is prohibited from sharing any information relating to the purchase of drug tax stamps with law enforcement or anyone else.

Purchasing drug tax stamps does not make possession of drugs legal.

Kansas drug tax FAQ

Kansas drug tax rates:
Marijuana:
* Processed $3.50 per gram
* Wet Plant $0.40 per gram
* Dry Plant $0.90 per gram
Controlled substances:
* $200 per gram or portion of gram
Controlled substances:
* $2000 per 50 dose unit or portion of unit

There's even a eBay store dedicated to marihuana tax stamps from across the country.

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State taxing authorities know that on-line shopping is extremely common. If you made a lot of money but claimed you never bought anything out of state, that is a big fat "audit me" sign.

Some states (PA is not one) actually have a formula they advise that you use. If you don't know specifics, take your salary and multiply it by some value, and that's how much people in your income bracket spend on out-of-state purchases. The multiplier itself is a function of your salary, though of course it's a gross oversimplification.

The "use tax" is perhaps the least-collected tax besides the "Prohibited Items Tax" imposed by several states including Kansas.

That would be like passing a law that makes it illegal for drug dealers to sell without a license.

Well, Kansas has something like this. They require drug dealers to purchase drug tax stamps. Of course, the reason they have this law isn't because they expect drug dealers to buy them, but because they know drug dealers won't and can therefore slap some extra months on their sentence. Even so, I still find it quite amusing.

is the link to the Kansas law concerning tax stamps for illegal drugs...

Just becuase someone is doing something illegal doesn't mean they dont have certain protections still. If someone is robbing a store and your walking down the sidewalk, see the robber, and shoot him unthreatened, your still in trouble. In the state of Kansas and maybe other states you still have to pay taxes on selling illegal drugs. Becuase the lokitorrent site could argueably be used legally OR you could have donated without even using the lokitorrent site to download anything at all you could argue in court you did nothing wrong and were the victim of a racketeering scam.

Before that point, it was possible to get tax stamps for it, but there was some complication (by design)

Wrong and wrong.

You CAN still get those stamps, and you did NOT need to incriminate yourself to do so.

Note that the IRS never handled taxes on the sale of goods, anyway.

Exactly, just like marijuana tax stamps. What a wonderful bureaucracy we've invented..

I have always heard rumors of Marijuana Tax Stamps and the like, so I did a little googling. Here's a random sample from Kansas:

Drug dealers, as defined above, are required by law to purchase tax stamps from the Department of Revenue's Business Tax Bureau (K.S.A. 79-5204). In order to protect against any possible violation of the self-incrimination constitutional protection, a dealer is not required to give his/her name or address when purchasing stamps and the Business Tax Bureau is prohibited from sharing any information relating to the purchase of drug tax stamps with law enforcement or anyone else

Sometimes it is.

Link

Quote: "The most significant changes to Kansas sales tax law are the sourcing rules. Retailers must use destination-based sourcing rules to correctly identify the local sales tax to charge on a retail sales transaction. Under the destination-based sourcing rules, sales generally are sourced to the location where the purchaser receives the item sold. Retailers who ship or deliver sold items to their customers' locations will be required to collect the local sales tax in effect where delivery is made."
[emphasis added]

So the correct tax is the local store tax - unless the item is delivered, in which case it is the tax in effect at the delivery location. I would assume most of BB and CC sales are NOT delivered, but things like big screen TVs and larger appliances would be - so the store may reguire the telephone number to know the tax rate required to be collected.

it would be like the government deciding that they should collect tax on sales of drugs while simultaneously prosecting the people selling the drugs.

Buy your drug tax stamps here.

Of course you have to pay taxes on the drugs you sell!

You can't tax an illegal activity any more than you can have your cake and eat it too.