BEYOND PARODY: The IRS Reminds Thieves That They Have to Pay Taxes on Stolen Property

The Internal Revenue Service is now reminding thieves that they must report income gained through their crimes.

This would be hilarious, if it wasn’t also a stark reminder of how normalized crimes like robbery and shoplifting have become in recent years.

It gets more difficult to distinguish between parody and reality every day.

The FOX Business Network reported:

Twitter users erupt at IRS’s calls for thieves to report stolen income: ‘Good to know’

The IRS’s bewildering rule about self-reporting income from crimes has caused some Twitter users to mock the federal agency.

According to IRS Publication 525, taxpayers are legally required to report the value of whatever property they stole during the tax year.

“If you steal property, you must report its FMV (Fair Market Value) in your income in the year you steal it, unless in the same year you return it to its rightful owner,” the rule reads.

The same rule applies to bribery, drug deals and other income-earning crimes.

The IRS purportedly uses the information solely for tax purposes and does not hand over any evidence to law enforcement.

The only situation where law enforcement may have access to the information is through court orders.

How is this real?

Does the IRS really think criminals are worried about making sure they filed their taxes correctly?

Also, does this rule apply to Hunter Biden and the Biden family?

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Mike LaChance has been covering higher education and politics for Legal Insurrection since 2012. Since 2008 he has contributed work to the Gateway Pundit, Daily Caller, Breitbart, the Center for Security Policy, the Washington Free Beacon, and Ricochet. He has also written for American Lookout, Townhall, and Twitchy.

You can email Mike LaChance here, and read more of Mike LaChance's articles here.

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