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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
[TN] Lawyers get rare order in battle over 'crack tax'
    #7323875 - 08/22/07 11:11 PM (16 years, 7 months ago)

August 23, 2007 - knoxnews.com

Lawyers get rare order in battle over 'crack tax'
Client's property they say was seized by Revenue Department safe for now

Two Knoxville lawyers who convinced a chancellor to strike down the state’s so-called “crack tax” as unconstitutional now have won a rare restraining order against the agency that collects it.

Attorneys James A.H. Bell and Richard Holcomb, representing a Livingston pharmacist accused of peddling painkillers, have won an order barring the state Department of Revenue from disposing of the more than $1 million in property they say the agency seized.

The restraining order is temporary, and Davidson County Chancellor Carol McCoy has set a hearing for Tuesday to consider, among other things, an injunction that keeps Malcolm Clark’s property safe from a sale until his attack on the tax is decided.

It is one more round in an ongoing legal battle over the constitutionality of the Tennessee Unauthorized Substance Tax Act, dubbed the “crack tax.”

The tax was passed in 2005 and largely painted as a sin tax akin to those levied against cigarettes and alcohol. The revenue department has collected more than $4 million from the tax so far.

Revenue agents collect it by showing up on the heels of drug investigators and handing out tax bills to accused dope dealers long before their cases go to court and without hearings typically afforded alleged criminals whose property is seized by law enforcement.

Bell and Holcomb contended that the tax was no tax at all but punishment for people who were accused but not convicted. Using the case of Jefferson County marijuana supplier Jeremy Robbins as a backdrop, the pair sought to prove that imposition of the tax violates all kinds of constitutional rights, including the right against self-incrimination, the right to due process, and the right not to be punished twice for the same crime.

Robbins had been popped with a $3 million tax bill for an operation that authorities said involved more than two tons of pot. In July 2006, Davidson County Chancellor Richard Dinkins sided with Bell and Holcomb, striking down the tax as unconstitutional.

Challenges to the tax are heard in Davidson County because the revenue department is based in Nashville.

The revenue department appealed and has continued to assess and collect the tax.

It was the agency’s refusal to put its tax-collecting efforts on hold pending appeal that spurred Bell and Holcomb to take Clark’s case to court.

According to their complaint, Clark ran afoul of law enforcement in Overton County in 2006 in a case involving claims that he knowingly filled forged prescriptions and improperly dispensed painkillers at the Clark’s Medical Center Pharmacy, which he owned.

In January, the revenue department hit Clark with a crack tax bill of nearly $6,000. He paid it. Four months later, Clark surrendered his certification to possess controlled substances and turned over to law enforcement his inventory at the drug store.

The complaint alleges that the revenue department then billed Clark more than $276,000. He paid that, too.

Less than a month later, Clark gave up the pharmacy itself to law enforcement.

“Mr. Clark has been excluded from access to the pharmacy since that time,” the complaint states.

Despite that, the complaint alleges, the revenue department has now assessed Clark a tax bill of more than $1.2 million, filed liens against his property, and seized a slew of personal items including jewelry and farm equipment.

Clark has not been convicted. Charges remain pending.

Sophie Moery, spokeswoman for the revenue department, declined comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

The state attorney general’s office is defending the agency. Spokeswoman Sharon Curtis-Flair said attorneys are reviewing the restraining order and preparing for Tuesday’s hearing.

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OfflineChristianTaylor5
Mammal
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Registered: 06/28/07
Posts: 195
Last seen: 16 years, 3 months
Re: Lawyers get rare order in battle over 'crack tax' [TN] [Re: veggie]
    #7324363 - 08/23/07 01:56 AM (16 years, 7 months ago)

I dont understand how this works. Do the police just come around one day and give you their "crack tax" bill and tell you to pay it, with no evidence of your crimes or arresting you?

Or do they catch you in a sting or bust and then slap you with the bill?

This seems really off, does anyone know how this actually works?

Later,

-CT

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Offlinerodfarva
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Registered: 07/31/07
Posts: 4,982
Last seen: 7 years, 1 month
Re: Lawyers get rare order in battle over 'crack tax' [TN] [Re: ChristianTaylor5]
    #7324465 - 08/23/07 03:22 AM (16 years, 7 months ago)

No but it sounds like the IRS is going down on this. Either legalize substances and tax them or forget about it and keep locking people up for possesion of "harmful" substances.


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OfflineExplosiveMango
HallucinogenusDigitallus
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Registered: 07/12/05
Posts: 3,222
Last seen: 14 years, 4 months
Re: Lawyers get rare order in battle over 'crack tax' [TN] [Re: rodfarva]
    #7324867 - 08/23/07 09:08 AM (16 years, 7 months ago)

Another good illustration of just how unconstitutional the drug war is...


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Know your self.
Know your substance.
Know your source.

The most distorted perspective possible is the perspective that yours is not distorted.

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Invisibleralphroks
humaniform


Registered: 03/25/07
Posts: 553
Loc: Up north passed Alaska
Re: Lawyers get rare order in battle over 'crack tax' [TN] [Re: ExplosiveMango]
    #7325037 - 08/23/07 09:53 AM (16 years, 7 months ago)

In similar cases with the marihuana tax act lawyers have argued its unconstitutional to pay taxes then get arrested for the items you paid your taxes on and get the criminal charges dropped usually. One of the charges they book you on posession of marihuana is failure to pay taxes.
But they never hunt down the tax money afterwards. Thats State Vs. Federal tax law though. This is all Tennessee state gov. looking for new ways to extort Their citizens for state budget money; after their federal funding was cut to pour that money into the war efforts. They`re
doing the same thing with cigarette taxes and traffic ticket quotas all over the nation.


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"Please read and learn and relay knowledge not misinformation! Thank you"-hyphae

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