Two can play this game. What if every SD reader that owns a small business began paying his or her employees in pre-1964 US dimes, quarters, halves, and silver dollars-eliminating the need to pay income tax due to the low face value paid in wages?
The IRS prays you remain unaware that the feds won 0 convictions on 161 charges during this 2007 precedent in the trial of a Nevada small business owner whose employees avoided taxes by receiving wages for their services in official US gold and silver coins.
A check for $13 will not replace the 13 antique silver dollars Thomas Traska remembered his father by and sometimes carried in his pocket.
But the Carson City silver dollars given to Traska by his father before he died were seized by Port Orange police earlier this year when officers went to Traska's house thinking he needed help, and instead found more than 50 marijuana plants growing in two bedrooms, police reports show.
City officials told Traska's attorney the silver dollars were deposited in a bank and they sent the 55-year-old Traska a check for $13 -- one dollar for every coin that was seized, Traska's attorney Mike Lambert said.
Assistant Police Chief Wayne Miller said officers followed the parameters of the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act when they seized the coins from Traska. The state statute allows for any asset to be confiscated if police believe the asset could be linked to a criminal act.
It's not clear what happens to an asset if police cannot prove it was linked to a criminal act. Speaking in general, Miller said that would have to be decided by the city attorney. But he could not comment further on the case.
Traska's silver dollars were taken March 9, a police report shows.
According to investigators, someone called 9-1-1 and said a man was having a "coughing attack" and unconscious. Firefighters, and then police, responded to Traska's residence on Broken Bow Lane in Port Orange.
But they shouldn't have, Lambert said, because the call was made by Traska's son from his Edgewater business. The individual Traska's son had called about was one of his customers. The man started coughing and choking but then felt better and decided he did not need an ambulance. Traska's son told dispatchers the customer was fine and hung up.
Regardless, dispatchers sent firefighters and an EVAC ambulance to Traska's home.
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