Power corrupts-You'd better pay your tax bills in Ohio or else-this is crazy!

Discussion in 'Political Discussions' started by Jacques, Oct 15, 2005.

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  1. Jacques

    Jacques New Member

    http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46833
    This is sickening to me. It's not what the united States was founded upon.
     
  2. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    What a bunch of dickheads!
     
  3. gkillion

    gkillion New Member

    Why are they dickheads? Had she just paid the $1.16 like she was supposed to, she could have saved the rest of the taxpayers the money it cost to collect her delinquent taxes.
     
  4. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    A simple cost-benefit analysis would tell you that if it costs more to collect a debt than the debt itself is worth, then you're far better off simply charging off the debt. But arresting someone over $1.16? Sheesh.
     
  5. gkillion

    gkillion New Member

    So then where do you draw the line $10, $50, $100? How much does it cost to collect delinquent taxes? Do you tell people "Don't worry about paying your taxes if you owe less than it cost to mail multiple collection notices, obtain a warrant, arrest, and incarcerate you"?

    I wish I knew how much it would cost to collect my delinquent taxes. That way I'll know how much to short the IRS next year.

    Oh, and that $100 speeding ticket...forget about it. That's much less than it costs to collect it.

    Government is not designed to be economically efficient. It's designed (among other things) to enforce laws.
     
  6. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    I have no idea how much it costs to collect delinquent taxes. Nor do I care. But being thrown in jail over $1.16 is simply going too far. If the local governments in Ohio were truly interested in efficient collection of the income taxes due them, maybe they should do like the feds and the states: withhold it directly from their paychecks. But there aren't that many local yokels in Ohio that have enough brains to figure that one out.
     
  7. gkillion

    gkillion New Member

    The article says she hasn't even filed a return in the last five years. Perhaps tax evasion is a more appropriate charge.

    And you're right, being jailed over $1.16 is ridiculous. It's ridiculous that someone refuses to pay such a paltry sum.
     
  8. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    She has paid her taxes (with the exception of $1.16) for each of the last five years even if the returns were not actually filed. How ridiculous can you get?
     
  9. Laser100

    Laser100 New Member

    Not Worth It

    I don't agree that the amount of money owed is worth arresting someone for. That is why they have collection agencies.
     
  10. Mr. Engineer

    Mr. Engineer member

    In nearly every case, an officer has at least some discretion in arrests. Even when a warrant was in place, I frequently found myself directing the person to go down to the station themselves and take care of business (an arrest would take me off the streets for 3-6 hours and for a minor crime is rarely worth the effort).

    The question is: What was this officer thinking? Are all laws supposed to be enforced to the letter and does the general public really want this? I doubt it. If all laws were enforced to the letter, then how come I had a friend whose husband beat her up despite having a restraining order (which was ignored 4 times by the local PD?). Obviously not every law is enforced (although it should have been in the case of the restraining order). Should we really arrest someone for spitting of the sidewalk - or is the true intention of this law simply PC (probable cause) for an officer to stop you?

    This reminds me of a case in DC where a woman was arrested for drinking a single glass of wine - she had a BA of < 0.02. She ultimately won the case but had to pay $2K in costs because she refused to go through the "alcohol abuse classes" (come on - simply drinking doesn't mean you are an addict). This also led to animosity of the local PD. If you want respect from the non-criminal element, you have to respect the public - it is really that simple.
     
  11. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Failure to file and tax evasion are not at all the same. I'm reminded of one time when I was in court over a traffic ticket, one of the cases before mine was a tax case. The prosecutor (some kind of distant cousin of mine) noted that defendant had not filed his city income taxes in x number of years. Defense attorney noted that, had defendant filed his previous years of tax returns, it would be noted that the government owes the defendant money. The judge threw that one out of court.
     
  12. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    In Massachusetts, a warrant is an order from a judge, directing all people authorized to serve criminal process to arrest the person named. Not executing a warrant when you have the person can land you in serious hot water.

    Also, a warrant arrest takes literally a few minutes. Drop the prisoner off at the cell block, sign the warrant to verify it's been served, and that's it.
     
  13. Mr. Engineer

    Mr. Engineer member

    How many judges are really that anal retentive? - and how many warrants does an individual judge sign (perhaps hundreds a week?). It was a bit more complex here. You had to fill out an arrest form (not a checked box thing - a narrative form) - drive the offender to the station. If there wasn't anyone around to drive them to the CJ - then you have to do it yourself. That would take you off the beat for at least 2-3 hours depending on traffic.
     
  14. Guest

    Guest Guest

    When I worked for the city of Tampa, we had no discretion in arresting persons with outstanding warrants. However I don't ever think I spent more than half an hour on such an arrest (unless I had additional charges on which I would have had to take paper as well.)
    Fill out the CRA - what we hand in when we transport someone to jail- and write the warrant number and "no independent knowldge", sign it and drop them off.

    Secondarily, how do you pay your taxes without filing the forms? Just make out a check for what you think you owe and drop it in the mail? She didn't fill out the forms as required by law (and what everyone who is not arrested for failing to file and pay tax did) and she didn't pay all she owed. She had five years to straighten it out so tough luck you go to jail.

    Either the laws apply to everyone or they apply to no one.
     
  15. jimnagrom

    jimnagrom New Member

    Buzzz......thank you for playing.

    Actually, the armed forces tried that approach in the early 80's. Lost or missing tools below a certain value could be written off by the company-level commander - rather than spend 100's of dollars of time doing an investigation over a $20 wrench.

    In one year, the "written-off" cost of tools was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars - and they quickly went back to doing the investigations.
     
  16. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Most Massachusetts judges are not exactly friends of the police. A few years ago, a cop who let someone go, after they knew the person had a default warrant, go into the shit when the warrant guy beat his girlfriend almost to death. If the cop made the arrest, the guy would have been sitting in a jail cell for the whole night.

    Under the new WMS (Warrant Management System), the judge doesn't physically sign any warrants, they're electronically signed, and kept in the state database. Prior to the WMS system, if the PD in Pittsfield (on the NY border) arrested someone on a warrant from our PD, we had to go out there to pick them up, since we held the only copy of the warrant. Now, the arresting agency prints out the warrant from the CJIS terminal, and the prisoner is arraigned in the local district court. It saves us some huge logistical headaches.
     
  17. miguelstefan

    miguelstefan New Member

    I really don´t know why you are so surprized. Wasn't Ohio the state that raided a museum because an exhibit was "obsene"? Wasn't Ohio the responsible state this time arround for re-electing George W. Bush? Nothing surprizes me anymore from the buckeye, which by the way is a poisonous nut, state.:rolleyes:
     
  18. gkillion

    gkillion New Member

    Along with about 30 other states.:rolleyes:
     
  19. DTechBA

    DTechBA New Member

    Let's be fair to the cop...

    I rather doubt the warrant had how much was owed listed on it. The cop probably only saw the the warrant with no amount listed. The hand on the gun thing is simply how some rest their hands.
     
  20. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Don't blame me. I'm not sure why the provisional ballots weren't counted.
     

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