Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Temptation, Taxes and Tables Turning

A man in Massachusetts won $4,200 in the daily numbers game in the state lottery. He got in a cab to go and collect his winnings. On the way it occurred to him that if he paid the cabby $200 to go into the lottery office and collect his winnings, the Internal Revenue Service would never find out that he had won the money. He could avoid paying the taxes on his winnings—too bad for the cab driver!

Neither the lottery winner nor the cabby knew that Massachusetts has a program which placed the lottery in partnership with the Department of Social Services. The lottery computer noticed that the cabby owed $4,000 in back child support payments which it withheld for the cabby's ex-wife. The cabby and the lotto winner were left to fight over the remaining $200.

Temptation on the journey was followed by the "payoff" at the end - "as certain as death and taxes."