Update: We have a winner! It’s Marc! For the answer, see the comments!
It’s our last tax trivia question for the giveaway! Thanks to CCH Complete Tax for the free software!
For the chance to win the last prize, answer the following question:
Everybody knows that the feds finally got Al Capone for tax evasion. He was convicted and spent more than 7 years in prison. He also paid nearly $300,000 in back taxes, fines and costs (in today’s dollars, that’s more than $4.2 million). In addition to getting Capone off of the streets, what collateral benefit did the high profile conviction provide?
The first correct answer wins free CCH tax prep software. I’m looking for a specific answer on this one: my answer is final.
Remember that you have to comment on the actual post, not on email, Twitter or Facebook, in order to win (though feel free to comment that way for fun). You can read the rules for the giveaway and more about the prizes here.
What’s your guess?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
It convinced other criminals and citizens to start paying all of their back taxes!. Over $1M!
Same answer..
“Criminals and legitimate citizens alike began to pay the IRS for back taxes. In 1931, the year Capone was convicted, more than $1 million in unpaid tax filings were submitted. That was double the amount of the year prior ” Treasury Department.
Deterring people from tax fraud and paying back taxes
It created a model for anti-terror policing.
In addition to my last answer, I’ll add this to make it a bit more complete: It would provide a template for the Justice department’s approach to terrorists and their accomplices.
It gave the federal government the ability to use tax fraud and money laundering as a way to put away criminals for crimes that they otherwise had managed to avoid being charged/convicted of committing.
It laid the groudwork for the RICO statutes to become law.
The courts proved to Capone that taxes could be collected on “illegal” money. Capone was required to pay a penalty of $215,000 plus interest due on back taxes.
Set a precedent.
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