Talk:Taxation of illegal income in the United States

Fifth Amendment and illegal income
Would be interesting to explain how the requirement for filing income taxes and the right against self-incrimination play out- how do and can people be required to report ill-gotten gains, when such a report would self-incriminate? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.159.77.239 (talk) 16:32, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

There is an article in Slate that talks about how one (for example a prostitute) can pay taxes. It says that you're allowed to be vague about your job and that Congress has created a limited safe harbor for people reporting income from illegal activities. http://www.slate.com/id/2229094/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.107.0.81 (talk) 00:06, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

More work on exceptions
I will work on the section on Exceptions. Based on a quick re-read of the Tellier case, I seem to recall that you can have both statutory exceptions and judicial exceptions to the general rule that expenses incurred in connection with an illegal activity are deductible. And of course there are more specific statutory exceptions than those listed. Stay tuned. Famspear (talk) 17:51, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Also, we could list the factors listed by the Court in Tellier in connection with the determination of whether an expense in connection with an illegal activity would be disallowed as a deduction. Stay tuned. Famspear (talk) 17:58, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Criminal provisions of Internal Revenue Code
I removed some slightly problematic material that did not seem to be properly sourced. The U.S. Internal Revenue Code actually contains many criminal provisions -- and some of the criminal provisions are not directly related to the U.S. federal income tax. Famspear (talk) 15:02, 27 June 2014 (UTC)


 * Note: The main areas of law in the Internal Revenue Code that involve criminal penalties for stuff other than tax evasion, failure to pay tax, failure to file returns, filing false returns, etc., are the areas of firearms and intoxicating liquors. The Code contains at least 18 different sections imposing criminal penalties in those areas, and some of those criminal penalties do not directly involve taxes (such as illegal possession of a still or distilling apparatus not registered under the Code, illegal possession of certain unregistered firearms, explosive devices, and so on). Famspear (talk) 15:18, 27 June 2014 (UTC)


 * This article relates more narrowly to just the U.S. federal income tax -- which is only part of the Internal Revenue Code, and specifically the article relates to the treatment of (A) illegal income, and (B) deductions for expenses incurred in the realization of such income. So, I think the article should stay focused on that, and avoid misleading statements about the scope of the criminal provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. Famspear (talk) 15:23, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

Another area of criminal law in the Internal Revenue Code that does not directly relate to taxation is the area of political contributions, including but not limited to willfully incurring certain campaign expenses by an eligible candidate of a political party for President or Vice President in a presidential election, accepting certain illegal political contributions, etc.

As you can see, there are reasons why the U.S. Internal Revenue Code is considered to be one of the most complex Codes ever enacted. My current "desk" copy is about five thousand pages of small type, three or four million words....

... it's what I live for!

(ummm... maybe I need to get out more often....) Famspear (talk) 15:36, 27 June 2014 (UTC)