IRS vs. privacy

[m5@vail.tivoli.com (Mike McNally)]

There was a neat piece on NPR Friday about why it's a bad idea
to evade filing Federal tax returns.  Among the spine-tingling
techniques used to pinpoint tax cheats:

*	The IRS knows about big cash transactions (we knew
	this already here.)

*	The IRS has all data from states concerning individuals
	registered as licensed persons in any field of work;
	thus, if you're a doctor, lawyer, plumber, electrician,
	or registered professional engineer, the IRS knows it.

*	[This blew my socks off] The IRS has subscription data
	for many national magazines.  Thus, if they know you're
	getting Time & Newsweek & Barron's and USNews but they
	see no tax return, they nab you.

This builds a good case for the notion that the IRS will have big,
big problems with digital cash economies.  They also probably have
problems with electronic magazines mailed through anonymous
remailer chains :-)


m5