January 13, 2008 Death and Taxes

In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. Thank you, Ben Franklin.

In Tennessee, there's a little twist on Ben's quote. As of January 1, 2008, there was an increase in the tax on death as the sales tax for caskets went up.

Lots of other increases will be coming the taxpayer's way--especially with Tennessee's Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr's plan to increase tax collections by closing tax "loopholes."

Ben Cunningham is always on top of the tax games that politicians play. Check this video about the definition of a tax loophole. Is it really a loophole? Well, it all depends on which side of the loophole you are on.

For the revenue collector, a loophole is bad and reduces revenue collections. For the taxpayer, a loophole is good and is a welcome breath of freedom from otherwise oppressive government.

NOTE: In case you have forgotten, Reagan Farr is Tennessee's illustrious leader who sent revenue agents across the border with other states so he could try to catch border-jumping Tennesseans who were buying cheaper, lower-taxed cigarettes in other states instead of doing their civic duty and paying higher cigarette taxes "for the children."

After confiscating 31,000 cartons, Mr. Farr recently declared victory and decided to wind down his cigarette surveillance efforts! Now he's turning to loophole closing. Watch your wallet!

September 28, 2007 Big Brother Watches Smokers

As mentioned in a September 22 post, the Tennessee Department of Revenue is watching you...especially if you dare to cross the state line and buy more than two cartons of cigarettes!


A News-Sentinel article by Tom Humphreys has garnered a huge number of online responses. The Drudge Report even links to Humphreys article.

September 22, 2007 Tennessee Revenue Commissioner Is Watching Smokers!

A tip of the hat to Terry Frank for her article on how Tennessee's Revenue Commissioner is going to check on Tennesseans who cross state lines to purchase cigarettes.

Shame on these people! Don't they know that they need to purchase their cigarettes in Tennessee and pay the big taxes in Tennessee because it's all "for the children."

Poor Tennessee. In addition to the problems in collecting higher cigarette taxes, the Tennessee Court of Appeals just recently ruled that Tennessee's "crack tax" is illegal!

The so-called "crack tax" required people possessing illegal drugs to buy tax stamps and assured them that if they would fork over the tax on the illegal drugs, one arm of government (revenue) would not tell another arm of government (law enforcement) about the illegal substance.

The ruling by the Court of Appeals came in a lawsuit filed by Steve Waters who was arrested in 2005 for selling about 1,000 grams of cocaine to an undercover officer for $12,000.

A few days later, the state Department of Revenue found out that Mr. Waters had illegal drugs in his possession but had failed to be a good boy who voluntarily paid his "crack tax."

The solution? The Department of Revenue promptly sent Mr. Waters a bill for $55,316.84 in taxes and penalties under the “unauthorized substances tax”!

I am not in favor of smoking or possession or use of illegal drugs.

But the "crack tax" always seemed absurd. It implied that we (Tennessee/Tennessee Revenue Department) don't really care if you have illegal drugs as long as we get our taxes.

UPDATE: An interesting link to a story on cigarette tax collections can be found at the Tennessean. (The comments are worth a read, too. The Tennessean and the News-Sentinel both allow online comments of their stories. It would be really nice if the local Citizen-Tribune allowed comments, but unfortunately, the Tribune doesn't allow comments and only leaves its articles up for a short time)