I have seen multiple times on Lemmy that the IRS wants people to report income from illegal means and that they don’t care to bust someone for it. For example, an illicit drug dealer is expected by the IRS to report their drug sale revenue without having to worry about being caught for drug dealing.
Will the IRS seriously not report illegal activities or individuals that report they earned income through vague illegal means?
If they don’t, do law enforcement agencies skim IRS tax reports to find people that report illegal income to further investigate?
Can IRS tax forms that report illegal income be used against someone in court?
It just seems ridiculous that reporting illegal activity, however undefined, to the federal government would be a safe option.
Why would the IRS need to know the source of the money? You generally don’t have to report the source of income, just the income itself to IRS.
Now no person is going to directly report the drug money, it will be reported via a front company where cash transactions are normal and expected.
aka money laundering
Why would the [government] need to know [whether money has been illegally acquired or not]?
I think you have the answer to your question.
I didn’t say government, I said IRS.
The FBI however, they would like to know.
I’m not American though. I didn’t realize that the IRS is not a branch of the government and definitely does not share its data with other people.
Still missing the point mate.
From a tax pov the gov doesn’t care as long as it gets it cut.
The tax pov is not the only pov that interests you if you sell drugs tho.