bribery, taxes

"If you receive a bribe, include it in your income."
-IRS Publication 525 (2007)

and from the same publication...

"Illegal income, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Form 1040, line 21, or on Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity."

if i was a talk radio host i might say "now what kind of idiot is gonna read this and decide to go and report income from bribes or drug sales?? let me tell you with the idiots we have in government..." let's assume we've already had our laugh and now want to imagine why a practical and intelligent government agency would publish these things.

the first possibility: ignorantia juris non excusat. the downside for members of a literate society is that since they are presumed to know how to read, and the law is written and available to anyone wishing to know it, they cannot be excused for not knowing the law. with these directives (which scarcely anyone affected would follow) being written and made freely available, it will be easier to convict bribe takers and drug dealers of income tax evasion (something which is usually easier to prove in court than bribery or drug dealing). legislators would have required these directives to be published by the IRS.

another possibility: the IRS dutifully takes a narrow view of its role, and is only interested in collecting what it is due. the cost of including these two lines is negligible, so any extra revenue it can pull in from having printed these directives was earned with little effort.