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You think drug dealers in some of the largest criminal gangs around are poor? What, you checking their tax records? They don't report black market cocaine sales to the IRS and even if they did the money would have to be laundered. Guarantee at least half those dudes are richer than me with my menial "not crack selling" job.
Furthermore, "self defense only for rich whities who can afford the tax" isn't the win you seem to think it is.
Drug dealing has a pretty extreme income distribution. Half of them earn less than minimum wage, only a couple of guys at the top actually make good money.
Half of em are doing it wrong then, I was nowhere near "the top" and I was making more than I do now legally. You just mean highschool dealers, or are we talking like, actual drug dealers that aren't just smoking for free because the allowance mommy gives them doesn't cover their need for weed?
Most of the street-level dealers that I saw in Chicago were not making a lot. I can't guarantee that they weren't dipping into their own supply, but they still lived in the same shitty, working-class neighborhood, and they were renting rather than owning. I'm sure someone was making a fair amount of money, but they guys on the corners, or the guys that fetched the drugs for the transaction, they weren't making bank. AFAIK, they were mostly dealing pot and heroin; probably mostly heroin, based on the baggie sizes.
Well you have to live where the customers are and where the neighbors don't ask questions, depending on what you sell and how much will of course vary that. Still, drug dealers have enough money that "tax bullets" isn't going to stop them.
You might have to live near your customers, but you don't have to live in exactly the same shitty circumstances. Based on the places they lived, they weren't doing a lot better than the people around them that were working shitty minimum wage jobs.
So we're solely basing it off of what it "looks" like? Don't worry about the $15,000 in the matress they haven't told you about because they don't want to be robbed and loose lips sink ships? Yup, sure thing, you're right, drug dealers are actually poor, officer.
Most of them are, yeah. When you read through this article, you'll note that they're mostly not dealing with end users; they're selling to other people that are selling to end users. Distribution--moving in bulk--is where you're making money.
So back to "doing it wrong." You can sell to them too and mark it up, but you have to at least move a little bit of weight, or you're doing it wrong. Drugs are kinda just a really effective MLM at the end of the day, it's better if you can get a couple guys to flip it for you.
You actually don’t have to launder it and you are supposed to report it.
You just send them a check and then all your taxes are paid
I feel like if you say "yes this is from all the cocaine I've sold" it might cause other legal problems, even though you won't get Al Caponed there are also plenty of people in prison for trafficking.
You don’t have to say where it came from, you just pay the taxes, I shit you not there is a place for it
...wait...really?! You can just report things as unspecified income? I didn't know that.
Still though, drug dealers aren't exactly poor unless they're bottom rung. I can't speak for all gangs (though they do kinda all work this way) but the Bloods for instance get great prices on drugs in my area between members and sell to "civilians" at a huge markup, like a ball of coke for them is around $80 but they sell it for $150. I've sold drugs myself in the past, I actually currently have friends that bang though I never did, none of them are hurting for cash and I wasn't back then either (but what I do now involves less prison, so it's risk/reward.) Guess I didn't have to tax evade, though I did lol. TIL!
It's a catch-all category on your 1040 for 'income from illegal sources'. I do know that you can't take deductions for business expenses related to illegally gained income though, so you don't get any kind of write-offs or deductions. (E.g., you can't depreciate any of the durable equipment that you need to buy to conduct your illegal business, you can't claim travel expenses, etc.) Plus, I think that it gets counted as 'self-employed' income, which means that you have to pay the full share of social security and medicare/medicaid that would normally be covered by an employer.
It's pretty simple to do, honestly. But I don't know if that kind of declaration can be turned over to another three-letter agency to start a criminal investigation into you, so ???
See that's what I meant by "causing other problems," the whole "investigation by other agencies" thing that, yes, they totally do.