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The Real Criminals
According
to The
Boston Globe, “The seven individual Dunkin’ Donuts franchise
owners pocketed illegal, undeclared rebate checks from the West Lynn
Creamery in the mid-1990s . . . . [April 9’s] charges came as part of
a long-running probe into West Lynn’s illegal ‘rebate program’
uncovered last year by the IRS.”
The idea was to let recipients claim higher costs for dairy
products without disclosing the offsetting rebates.
The net effect, of course, was to reduce their tax burden.
It was a dastardly plan and prosecutors, to the tune of $7.2
million, have already pounded West Lynn for its part in the crime. The
group of seven is reported to have received amounts well into the six
figures ($668,065 for three of the seven).
This tells us nothing about what their actual tax liability would
have been, but the dollar figure does look large enough to convince the
casual observer of the greed and guilt of these small business
proprietors. Then,
to really place the reader squarely on the side of the government, the
Globe reporter quotes IRS special agent Michael P. Lahey:
“We should not expect the honest taxpayer to foot the bill for
those who hide income from the IRS.”
Ah. So Lahey and
U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan are going after some donut makers for our
benefit. Does this mean
that after the defendants are forced to pay restitution (and perhaps
even fines) we can expect to see a smaller bill to foot in the future?
I can hardly wait. Lahey’s statement is just plain stupid. It’s like saying victims who have been successfully burgled
are “footing the bill” for those who manage to better shield their
valuables from the thieves. While
it’s true these tax evaders may be criminals in the legal sense, they
are not criminals in any moral sense.
In fact, by keeping money out of that giant sinkhole on the
Potomac, they’ve have done us all a great service.
The taxes they didn’t pay provided that much additional funding
to channel economic activity towards the satisfaction of consumers’
desires. For that they
deserve our thanks, not our scorn. But those consumer benefits are about to be reversed. Government will have its tithe and we will all be the poorer for it. Consider the following, compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste: --
$750,000 will now be spent “to prevent Atlantic salmon from escaping
state streams” in Alaska. -- Another $4 million will be allocated for “sea lion recovery.” -- $7 million will be vaporized at West Virginia University’s new position emission tomography facility. -- And $100, 000 will “encourage children to hold fairs displaying their inventions.” Whenever our money goes to Washington, it’s spent according to the priorities of politicians and bureaucrats. We no longer get to choose what best satisfies our wishes. Their wishes supplant ours. And they pay for it with our money! Think about that and ask yourself who the real criminals are.
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