From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Tue Feb 12 2002 - 11:16:50 MST
> > In Florida, carrying large sums of cash, say over $10,000, is legally
> > defined as "suspicious". The police can and do seize such large amounts of
> > cash under the assumption that it is drug money. The cash can be retrieved
> > only if the person can prove where it came from and that it was obtained
> > legally. Any unexplained cash that is not later retrieved is simply kept by
> > the government.
>
> Well, yes, of course. Not that I like it, but this is an entirely
> rational argument to make, because if you kept that amount of cash
> outside of a bank account, then you must be trying to hide it from the
> government for some reason. At the very least you are trying to evade
> tax laws, at worst you are engaging in illicit trade.
>
> It is also rational to assume that if you got that amount of cash
> legitimately, you should be able to demonstrate with receipt records who
> you got it from and for what... at which point you'll be asked to pay
> taxes on it... of course, the fact that many businesses deal in far
> greater sums every day has no bearing... a legitimate business is
> assumed to keep the sort of records that would show how the money was
> earned ;)
Sorry, Mike,but your narrow world-view here is a bit detached from
reality. I, and many other professional and semi-pro poker players
I know, routinely carry large amounts of cash into and out of casinos,
and we don't get receipts for every transaction. Many cash merchants
carry large amounts as well (though they tend to have better records).
And besides, isn't hiding income from the government a marvellous
life-affirming expression of libertarian values?
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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